Magic perhaps
by Helltanz98
Summary: Harry lived with the Durselys for six years without magic. It's been four years since that all changed if the Wizarding World was expecting a hero they're out of luck. Harry does have outside perspective on how to deal with their remaining death eaters. AU
1. Chapter 1

Magic perhaps

Chapter 1

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: more or less a straight HP fic, borrowed fantasy magic and some common clothes tropes though, among other things I'll enjoy tossing clichés here and there. Technology 'techomagic' what not whatever will probably reach steampunk levels to an extent, if for no other reason than to have magical airships. Of course that won't be until fifth year probably.

So here is my latest fic enjoy.

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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Pain had for the first years had been his friend something he had been so intimately familiar with one could say they had been lovers of sorts, or at least a woman who always make sure to come to visit him.

He'd always be fixed by the morning something that had always seemed to anger his relatives. That had stopped when he had been seven. More because it had no choice, the abuse had come to a grinding halt.

After that his closest companion was hate and contempt. Those two feelings were now nearly always coursing through his veins. Now all he held for other people was at best a cold disdain for other people.

It was an attitude reflected in his grades and his clothing, and obviously in his mannerisms. The boy's name was Harry Potter age ten year 6 class 2 of the local junior level school. Frankly he didn't have friends, and if not for the fact none of the local bullies wouldn't go near him most people would have expected for the pale, smart, for his grade anyway, skinny, dark clad and bespectacled kid to be bullied.

Not the case in the slightest. Harry Potter pretty much would have screamed goth or at least some kind of emo freak, with the far to many belts, long flowing coat, complete lack of anything brighter than crimson red with the sole exception of his white gloves, which frankly he never seemed to take off, in fact no one had ever seen him take them off… ever.

Right now the kid was in the process of staring at the sky, spiders if any one took the care to notice them positioned in any of the directions one could approach. Definitely not an understatement to say the kid was odd.

At the present moment he was using one of his gloved fists to shield him from the harsh glaring light of the summer sun as he lay on top of the roof.

Well to be quite specific he was trying to finish the Weird of the White Wolf, he doubted he would manage it before class resumed and that overly cheery bitch Jennifer probably try and discourage him from reading, pretentious smiling whore. He thought furiously remembering the last time he had retaliated for her taking one of his books, it had been just a couple spiders and the stupid woman had screamed so loud, hence why he now preferred to sit in the back of the class.

Vernon had before that day, what was now referred to as the Incident if it had to be mentioned at all in the Dursley household, had along with Petunia always drilled into his head, and Dudley's that magic didn't exist.

Of course the incident had changed all that magic was a power, which could be used to mutate, to change reality. The Incident had been merely a realization a strange sensation wanting to stop the pain to show others the pain he felt to make them suffer.

Clearly since Vernon had lied about magic since there was if it could be called logical in the first place, that was the only explanation.

Magic perhaps was real, and if it was not really called magic then it was some other weird power it didn't particularly matter.

In the past four years he had discovered the power operated through force of will more or less in a fantasy method, actually that seemed because that was were most of his ideas had come from.

Whatever the case was magic responded to thoughts and required energy proportional to the change being committed.

Of course it was about this time the screaming started, normally this meant that one of the kids had found a bee or something of that nature, and thus Harry didn't care in the slightest about whatever it was.

Thus the young boy continued to read until one of his spiders reported to him, or rather as it was actually an observer spider reported to the large spider who in turn reported to the young wizard himself that there were masked black coats throwing beams of light across the play ground.

Actually it was more the fact one of the black coats had stumbled onto the roof that he decided to get involved.

Five magic missiles impacted the man's chest and sent him careening off the roof, "Well that was easy, stupid mooks." He grunted.

Due to the fact he was still more or less in the process of figuring out exactly how to do what in regards to magic Harry's experiences were primarily academic, if one could call chucking fireballs at things academic, in nature nonetheless he'd always wanted to lead an evil style army into battle, hence why he had been working so hard on trying to recreate the Ringwraiths.

So far that hadn't been met with much success, especially since according to Tolkien the original Black Riders were powerful undead humans. This of course really put a damper for such ideas of armies.

A feeling of cold spread down his back and across his arms and up his neck wrapping around his cheeks, Harry considered his options.

Larger magical attacks would require him to more or less remain stationary, and he did not have enough spiders at the school to do much damage. Spiders were his most basic minion, one could call them, unfortunately most of the creepy crawlies were rather unsuited for combat, that of course was something common sense told him given the fact the mainstay of the arachnids were simply magically empowered spiders making them suitable for spying.

There was a sickening crack and one of the dark robes went flying through the air, oh that was right before Petunia had thrown a hissyfit he had been working on bringing his tub of lard cousin's magic out. He was actually surprised it had been a successful as it was but the fact of the matter was Dudley, and Petunia were the only ones who had the magic circuits, saying pathways just sounded dumb.

Still they were in point of fact out numbered, even if it was just magic mooks, damn it he needed more combat spiders, or trap spiders more combat spiders was the better idea of course, but additional trap spiders wouldn't hurt.

Frankly most of his spells were untested at best, and completely theoretical at worst, of course it was also true he had a handful of highly developed spells that he had already mastered in their entirety to the point of just a thought, teleportation came to mind immediately in that regard, but those were extremely few.

Harry studiously observed both with his own eyes and through his spider minions the black cloaks. It appeared that he had the advantage in range since even his close range spells had a range of twenty five feet to say nothing of his magic missiles which were more than four times that. "I need more goblins," He groaned, well to be frank I really need more minions in general, and magic user minions, the wizard thought as he observed the area.

To state the obvious he didn't really care what happened to his so called classmates it just really didn't matter to him. Still he hadn't expected Dudley to be able to use the seals so effectively this merited perhaps further study. By so effectively he meant that it appeared to him that his tub of lard cousin was using the magical circuits at a much higher level of efficiency that he ever had been before.

It was interesting but likely something he'd loose interest in after a few weeks. Besides at the moment the black cloak mooks were the problem, and besides that he had deemed the project with Dudley a waste of time, he needed more minions not for him to be distracted by some project.

So once again reviewing his arsenal of magical spells that he could use effectively, that included teleportation, over all he might be able to snipe them from the rooftops of the school but that was iffy about how effective it would be.

More because he was at the moment unsure of exactly what defenses these mooks could be able to use, not much he would wager, but he didn't intend to go this route without first weighing his other options. Albeit said options were more or less non existent given his present repertoire.

Yes with out his staff engaging the mooks physically was out of the question he was simply to small, while he might be able to surprise them with boost to his physical abilities it was simply out of the question. By staff what was meant was a large iron pole on which he had basically infused magic into, this, the infusing of magic, had been what caused the tribal like design patterns to manifest. With out the tool his melee abilities with the exception of using magic to boost strength and speed and using teleport were exactly what one could expect from some one his age.

Harry raised his hand and focused, gesturing from his place atop the roof towards the mass of dark cloak mooks. Black Tentacles, a mass of them, formed into existence feeling along the ground reaching and grappling with the startled mooks.

The tentacles began to seize everything within the a twenty foot radius of where they had burst out of the ground.

A few of the magical mooks caught in the mass of inky black tentacles attempted to struggle and fire spells at the tentacles but it was for naught.

Reaching inside he prepared to cast the next spells two glowing beads emerged from his fingers, he had at max five minutes until they exploded on his own hopefully that would be enough time.

Dudley socked another of the mooks sending him careening away and into the swing set with a wet thud. The tub of lard's magical circuits had been artificially enlarged allowing him to generate waves of concussive energy from his fists and mouth, or if he bothered with his feet.

Harry teleported his arrival causing a cloud of sand to rise at his feet as he appeared on the playground.

"Its Potter!" Exclaimed one of the dark cloak mooks, "For the dark lord!" The mook declared with a flourish of his wand.  
The mook shouldn't have take his eyes off the young wizard to look at his fellow dark cloaks, Harry flicked his wrist unleashing a bolt of acid which ate away the whole of the man's extended forearm, "Dark Lord? Which one?" Harry demanded as the man writhed around in the dirt.

"The Dark Lord."  
Either they meant that as a figurative name for the Christian Devil, or they were even bigger dumbasses then regular mooks. "Again which one?" He demanded of the mooks he counted at least twenty of them when he had been observing though a few seemed to go inside the school. "And if you answer the Dark Lord I'll do a lot worse than acid arrow," The warlock growled to the group of mooks.

"Uh the- he who must not be named," Stated one of the dark cloaks hastily while fingering his wand.

Weren't elder gods, presuming Lovecrafts books were in fact correct on the matter of such beings, supposed to have semi competent, or at least intelligent mooks he thought, "Not an acceptable answer behold the-" His monologue was abruptly cut off as one of the sneaking mooks did something stupid.

A low roar tore across the playground catching the dark cloaks in a blaze of fire, they shouted and squealed as the delayed blast fireballs went to work. Losses in this case were within acceptable, well actually he didn't care if their were 'losses' but the fact was the fire balls had not caught any of the terrified kids a number of whom had just been apparently levitated off the ground.

He had been intending do something fancy like storm of vengeance but apparently some one had stepped on one of the fireball beads causing it to detonate prematurely if the dark stain was any indication. It had been his plan to telekinetically use the beads and move them and catch the mooks in one blast but now that was out the window. With a scowl he flung a bolt of lightning from his fingers mooks or not he couldn't waste any more time on them. The spell was a powerful stroke of electrical energy and began to arc from those within its range. "Kneel before me and beg for you lives miserable currs," He laughed in such away it was odd. In truth he needed to hurry he'd never engaged in a real fight much less one against magical mooks so he needed to finish this quickly, most assuredly did he have any intention of allowing this to go on without reinforcements from his own minions.

At that moment a spider ripped from a batch of grassy ground and leapt sinking its fangs into one of the mooks back.

Well at least, he thought, I am not completely with out assistance in dealing with these fool black coats. Harry pressed his spectacles up on the bridge of his nose, and watched as a gobbling scraped its head slavishly on the dirt, "Scour the school kill any of the black cloaks you find, cut them, rend them, bite them, do whatever but see to it they are dead and be quick about it." He ordered to the three and a half foot tall creature gripping a meat cleaver. The beast ran its tongue over its lips and nodded affirmatively and rushed off with the rest of its gang.

Frankly while theoretically useful he had yet to find much use for the creature other than digging hidey holes and stealing. If he wanted to rule over the land well to start with he needed land to rule over in the first place, but he also needed more minions, and stronger minions as well.

Harry prepared to attack again, ignoring the fact Dudley had collapsed entirely, when the mooks decided to make their retreat and vanished, or at least the dark cloaked mooks who were still alive or conscious did.

This was actually a quite a bit better luck than expected considering the young wizard was while not drained still not above half of his reserves. While this of course meant he was more than capable of continuing and indeed could pretty much teleport an infinite number of times if the enemy had stayed and started acting competent or he was still here should they return with reinforcements then they might be able to drain his reserves of magical energy, besides their retreat gave him the opportunity to prepare a trap should they choose to return.

"Oooh can you do that again?" Asked one of the kids from Year 1.

Harry's glasses flashed malevolently, "Mark shut up!" He growled at the little blonde boy angrily.

The kid took a step back and crossed his arms and frowned and pouted.

Personally he didn't really give a shit at the moment. Instead he stormed his way toward one of the unconscious wizards blue energy aglow veiling his gloved hand. Without any further ceremony he yanked the man's mask off and gripped his face and began the process of draining his energy.

It was amongst the few spells in his arsenal that aside teleportation that he could use with little concentration, no spell was wrong. This was the power he used to feed off the energy directly he could do it without touch but this was much more effective. More than once he'd lost himself in the process of reaping not that it mattered no one cared for the dregs of society.

Energy replenished he let the still living body fall from his grasp, he had been tempted to drain the fool to nothing more than a husk but that would have served no purpose especially since he wanted answers. Thus he had stopped once his reserves were replenished, which had left the man with plenty.

Harry began to walk towards the school, despite his brooding appearance he did not carry any form of weaponry upon him while at school, though he had more than a few liberated weapons stashed away.

Of course such mattered little as more arrived, no these were different, he realized after a moment, they were red not mask wearing mooks. The difference between the two mooks was something he wasn't absolutely sure of.

For the barest of seconds he considered laying waste to the entire area with the one mass effect spell he had mastery of, but promptly dismissed such a move that would needlessly draw attention to himself, it was foolish to consider it in the first place.

"Death Eaters," Was the first word out of the apparent leader of the red mooks' mouth as they surveyed the scene.

Harry pondered if that was the name of the unit of mooks, well he had heard worse, read worse rather. "Is that what there called then?" A bolt of scarlet light shot at him, "Fire shield," The young wizard snapped calling the barrier of flames into place in front of him and using the smoke generated to roll to the side. While the red mook got berated he unleashed his own spell a powerful gust of wind lifted his would be attacker from his feet and sent him careening into a tree.

"Wait, wait we're the good guys!" One of the red mooks shouted in a nasally voice as he began to wave his arms about.

After a moment considering his options of flame broiling the possible threat Harry grunted, and hmmed suspiciously.

"Really we are, we're aurors, we're the good guys." Stated the man no longer waving his arms foolishly about.

Briefly he again considered simply blasting the blithering idiot from existence, and then they started shouting again, which really made him want to zap them.

"Your Harry Potter!"

What the fuck, was about the only logical phrase to pass through his mind in the following second, how the hell do these idiots know my name, was the next phrase to acquaint itself into his mind, after he clamped down on his urge to just hit something namely the red cloaked mooks with chain lightning.

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It was a few hours later that Harry made his way home, or rather back to Privet Drive with Dudley Dursley in tow.

Frankly the schoolday had actually been more useful than expected he had not only managed to learn that wizards had apparently their own mind wipe spell something he quickly copied and applied upon all of those present.

That was of course only the tip of the iceberg, as the expression, went apparently he was famous, actually that was just a perk, but the fact was he had gotten more information than expected.

Apparently the black cloak mooks with masks, they had to have masks, since apparently a lot of people wore black cloaks, were called Death Eaters, and the red cloak wearing mooks were called Aurors, they were supposed to keep the black cloak wearing and mask wearing mooks in line, something they failed at, miserably.  
Other information included that wizards used gold, silver, and bronze for money rather than paper like non magical people did, he had liberated a stash, there was also a place over in London that housed the primary shopping center place.

Summarizing it all, well it looked more or less Medieval in character with the obvious exception of no witch burnings.

Harry let his head thump against the wall and promptly swatted one of his minion goblins away from him, "No I don't want any," He growled, shivering violently. There had been something more important, he should have grown up in that world instead he had been forced, not in such terms mind you, to live with the Dursleys. Some one was going to pay for that.

True enough it wasn't as bad as it had been, but not only had the Dursley's lied to him, of course that wasn't necessarily a big surprise, but still he had been forced to endure six, six miserable fucking years with his fat ass relatives, actually that only applied to Vernon and Dudley, but that was besides the point.

Even so he was thoroughly pissed at the situation over all, he fully intended to make someone preferably everyone in general suffer for his pain.

Whatever the case he had a whole summer to look forward to, a whole summer of getting minions and practicing spells. Maybe he'd threaten the Walrus into taking them some place that was nice, maybe isolated or something.

More trembles wracked his form, anger made him like this, hate and contempt flared in his veins and fingers curled into a fist, "They will pay," His minions at present were pathetic, okay perhaps not pathetic. Scattered would have been a better term to use most of those minions were at present scattered through out the mature woodlands in the county. Harry had prior to knowing about the wizards had started to exploit the wood lands having the goblins in his service dig and toil to build him a lair of stone and earth in the hill, but now all that might not be needed.

That was precisely what infuriated him, he had wasted time weaving magic of concealment and illusion over the site and now it might prove for naught all because he had been withheld his birthright.

Such a thing was unforgivable, no, he thought, his work could yet be to his advantage no doubt his birthright would be of use, before he had wiped their minds he had learned much of his sire's blood.

Potter they were a noble ancient family. He had been denied till this point what was rightfully his, people would pay for this crime. He had been kept ignorant of such facts of his blood instead thrust with his mother's bitch of a sibling. Still he was denied, for the time being at least, what was his.

Harry ran his fingers over the spine of the book, despite his dark gloomy appearance and use of magic and the forces of darkness he did not write in blood, which would have just been utterly stupid. His scrawl was precise each character and symbol written, the words orderly and each stopping precisely. There was no fancy curve, and curl, and swirl or such silly nonsense as loops in his writing just simple to the point characters.

The characters of the alphabet filled the page, he was of course well aware of exactly what was stated, he had written after, knowledge. No he had penned it for another reason not for his own memory but for his legacy, he wanted power. More than that he wished to embrace that power to do such he needed minions, and not just the simple minions he had now, he needed other magic users. Well that wouldn't be such a problem now. He had a whole other world to conquer now as well. More people to conquer, and these had to be punished for slighting him.

In truth he probably would have hated these wizards even with out knowing about the fact of his father being a pureblood. They had deprived him of what was his so they would be made to pay, that was his justification but if given the chance he would have beaten just for having better childhoods than he had.

Whatever the case the wizards could wait he would record what he had gathered on their magic that he had learned this day and then he would plan.

A whole other world, like the wizards as the case was, it raised problems already his forces were far to small to do much, it was hence why he had no intention of moving quickly no he would creep and stalk and his host would grow until it was an unstoppable tide and when he struck his minions would decapitate the leaders of the world with subtle quick deaths of poison from spiders.

Still what he had originally planned for in the event of a rogue student now he would have to use earlier, spiders that had poisons of silence. He was immune of course that had been something he had insured early on.

Perhaps he would go to the lair and see how his minions had proceeded since his last visit to the woodlands, yes perhaps they had even snared a few stupid people.

Harry was careful, he only preyed on the dregs of society, criminals and the homeless mainly, it wasn't just leaching them of their energy he did other things to turn them to his benefit, curses brimming with hate and malice wrapped around their hearts, as he twisted their minds to serve his whims.

They were just tools more valuable than the everyday people one found on the street but even so they didn't matter they were disposable their minds shattered and replaced with nothing more than the urge to serve him.

For the most part this fact alone made him detest them further, but even so they could be useful. Still if someone stumbled into the woods it was different than some fool he stumbled upon in London they would never be found.

Summer tended to be more useful, it amused him to give them plenty of opportunity to escape. They thought they were being clever, the older ones did teenagers mostly who thought it would be cool to sneak off with their 'special person' and have a little bit of naughty fun in the woods. When they were caught they were the ones who always attempted to escape they never succeeded and the bodies never found. Once just once thankfully there had been an old person who had apparently assumed Harry was 'not from this world', whatever the hell that meant.

Frankly he was of the opinion he had done delusional old man a favor since no one had come looking for him. Minion wise he had more goblins and spiders than anything else though spiders easily outstripped goblins, obviously even goblins couldn't match the breeding rates of spiders. As it stood in that regards he had a motley tribe of the little cretins, most of whom were engaged in lair building.

Actually that task was tying up the majority of his even vaguely Humanoid minions hence why the attack at school had caught him so off guard. This of course, the being caught off guard was totally and utterly unacceptable.

In truth he had not really been caught off guard, true an enemy had wandered right into the place he spent the by and large of his time, but they hadn't actually caught him off guard, per say.

As far as rooms went Harry's room more or less passed for a combination of a study with sleeping arrangements crammed off to one side, even so more than a few errant pieces were scattered about the room, mainly paper, but occasionally some discarded piece of metal, usually a piece of clockwork being found its way onto the ground.

He didn't particularly care about the state of affairs and in his opinion this room was minimal in its importance, anything in this room could be recreated he even had most of it duplicated. Still this new spell had its applications so he record it, the ability to manipulate memories would be useful but he'd need to work on it. Only his already stellar concentration and the fact he was merely erasing the memory of Harry Potter being there had allowed him to pull it off, and even then he found he had made a mistake without him there there was no explanation as to who had beaten up the black cloak mooks, and he had of coursed erased their memories as well, it was a fairly rudimentary job as far as such things had gone though he had expunged their memories enough as to prevent anyone from having a chance to find it, magic worked on belief after all.

For now he'd focus on changing his plans to accommodate the change to his plans, he hated changing his plans, which would be required by the Wizarding world being in play and whatever knowledge that such yielded.

Carefully crafted plans would have to be delayed, not that the time issue was really such a major thing, so as to accommodate the wizards. Still there would obviously need to be modifications but he had no certainties on exactly what would change and that kind of situation did him no favors, which in turn led him to being in an even worse mood than he was in normally.

For now of course if there were going to modify his plans it meant he would need to speed up his education in magic, and obviously get more minions. From what he had glimpsed of the red mooks mind he would face difficulties. While with a flick he could call forth lightning and smote any who would think them his equal there were more perilous dangers than those who fought with raw brutality, and those were the ones he would need to be wary of.

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Summer holidays had begun and frankly the young wizard was currently in his usual habit of practicing, in other words spying on people.

Harry released the orb of splendid fire his rage had for the time being had abated though there was no doubt it would return again in full force, or perhaps greater. The young wizard was at the moment content to sulk and plot.

At present his mood was its more tempered, somber rational state, not that that wouldn't change quickly enough given the correct provocation. By his own admission the wizards were simply far to much of an unknown and while they were by all appearances mooks by and large that did not indicate they in actuality this.

No the wizards were fractured along ideological lines, fractured was good he could use fractured was something that could be exploited. Still he would need to be wary of them after all these wands made it easier to cast magic.

Thinking of such of a thing angered him they were weak relying on halves of effort as opposed to exerting themselves. He felt nothing more than contempt but recognized that if the wands did allow for less arduous spell casting then the wizards really could be a problem.

For as it stood it took him a few weeks to master a spell to the level of using it with little moments of notice. Of course meaning that his arsenal was potentially constrained by exactly what he could use in an instant, while in theory these mooks could spend time learning a much larger number of spells and be able to use them. A healthy dose of caution then should be used.

It wasn't that he presumed they could match him, one on one, however even he had his limits particularly given the constraints of his physical body. He was at best just a little over average in height for an eleven year old, and even so he was gaunt with no significant muscle mass. So short of using magic to temporarily boost his strength any form of melee would assuredly go against him. Even with magic supplementation he did not have the mass needed to be even particularly effective so he intended to avoid any type of physical combat if he could avoid it.

Of the numerous problems correcting his physical ineptness was while meriting a position on the list did not rank to highly so it would be a while, and it was unlikely that there would be any change in regards to the position even with wizards.

Physical violence was to be left to minions it was base, making others feel pain was quite well and acceptable in his book he just had no reason to waste his time doing it himself certainly not when he could have a minion do it, or he could use magic to cause pain to whatever person was in question.

Besides beating the tar out of some one was the mannerism of his fool tub of lard cousin not himself. Speaking of Dudley Dursley he was off no doubt pestering other children with his little band of thugs.

No doubt the failure was exploiting his newly gained proficiency with the generation of kinetic blasts and wreaking all manner of trouble.

He didn't particularly care Dudley's surprising usefulness against the black cloak mooks was irrelevant in his opinion he had deemed the process as far to fastidious to be anywhere near effective in the long run, or at least so he deemed it.

Currently the wizard was in the process of reviewing what was currently aware of in regards to the ongoing events of local Surrey, done via simple scrying. His affairs were his own and frankly no one minded or seemed to mind what he did. This went so far as to deal with the police who were still totally clueless of his devilish revelry.

Totally contrary to urban legends, or at least as far as the aspiring magical overlord could tell, Vampires did not control the London Underworld, in fact Harry had yet to even encounter even one of the so called children of the night.

Werewolves on the other hand occasionally roamed the woodlands of Surrey on the full moons but other than that did not make an appearance.

Personally Harry wasn't even sure whether he was looking in the right places for the creatures in question not that it mattered.

Actually it did matter since both creatures in question had noticed the increasing numbers of dead bodies and the local London Police were passing off the reports of bodies to those more used to dealing with weird stuff. Not that he was currently was aware of this nor would he be for a while.

In the mean time Harry continued to observe Surrey, as expected Dudley and his thugs were of course making nuisances of themselves. Not a particularly large surprise all things considered it seemed to be the tub of lard's favorite pastime.

Scrying was by far his worst skill at present, requiring him to use an element as a focus in the case of the present that element being fire, though wards came a close second, in comparison to his other talents, etching arcane symbols was not something he was by no means particularly fond of.

There was much work to be done in preparation magic and technology were incompatible for the most part, there exceptions of course but these were requiring of further study the time of which to do so he did not at the moment posses. No, no anything after the nineteen thirties was going to be to much trouble to make work, well with the possible exception of cars, and even then that was merely speculation on his part as he had had no method of testing that.

Until he had such an opportunity of testing what worked when combined with magic and what didn't the young wizard had more or less labeled anything modern pretty much with a write off saying it wasn't going to work.

Not that he was particularly concerned magic was better by far anyway technology was too prone to back firing splendidly on you. Pollution and cars catching on fire plus all the refuse created by modern society were his principle examples.

A major problem with scrying was well it required you to focus on the location, or person if such was your desired viewing material, so he didn't notice anything particularly out of the ordinary even when it did happen unless he was focusing on it.

Minions were troublesome to come by and that was affecting his concentration sure the goblins had their used but he needed more, and not just of them. He had others besides the spiders and goblins but those well they were fewer in number, which made risking such minions riskier at present.

The aspiring overlord banished his elemental scrying with an annoyed snarl and interlaced his fingers. He had planned to recruit those with the potential for magic for the express purpose of having lieutenants though as of yet he hadn't even started on aforementioned task. Primarily due to the lack of suitable candidates being available to him, perhaps that might change soon.

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Summer was like every other season something Harry detested, then again he had contempt for nearly everything it was just the effects having to deal with the pain of living with the Dursley's contempt for six years.

He had made his decision in regards to a path short of the armies of men and the Elves coming together plus the other allies Sauron should have one, and to Harry's knowledge while Elves of classical Fantasy did exist they were few in number. A fact he knew because he had managed to acquire Dark Elf minions, few as they were, in addition to make contact with their woodland counterparts.

The later of course wished to be left alone. Harry did not tolerate such well but knew well enough provoking them in his present state would be foolishness. No, no, he wouldn't make the mistake made by so many overlords, especially when he didn't have the same resources they possessed, yet. Calling anymore allies was out of the question no, most certainly not with the attack against the school.

Aforementioned attack had thrown him, loath as he was to admit it, off guard something that could not be permitted to happen again. He needed to reinforce his security as it stood however he did not have the manpower to do such a thing, which was something that irked him to no end.

Without more information he was however unable to do anything about it, certainly not after considering his current lack of manpower, minion power rather. If the goblins continued to breed as they did then he might be able to remedy such things but there were still all manner of problems with construction that did keep the populous from growing as fast as it could have, not that he cared. The principal reason was goblins even as a horde despite being dangerous were not exactly to be the most useful.

For the moment however he lacked the resources to facilitate any such large scale force of more competent minions. Growing up amongst the non magically talented had taught him well of their strengths. Though flawed and lazy for the most part they had their advantages. His brilliant plan to deal with this was a two part strategy a colossal air burst of magic over the Eurasian continent, or several if such was needed. This of course had its issues while it was possible to generate a tech shattering magical pulse, indeed such was rather simple, getting it large enough posed problems. The second part of the phase required breaking the industrial and academic base, this would be equally as troublesome to facilitate, but in theory doable it would merely require work, research, and of course more minions. While useful Harry was adverse to relying on having minions of other races who could use magic so it could delay things substantially, at least minimally in regards to having access to some of the work.

Magic's core principal was belief and following that was wisdom, so long as you knew what you wanted it could be made to happen so long as you had the energy and the concentration to make it so. All magically inclined races had their own unique methods of utilization, each to suit their own whims.

There were of course other methods of using magic than simply the wave of an arm and a spoken invocation to smote the enemy, subtler ways most of these would require preparation and further study of course. Runes for example could be etched into stone to form potent defenses something of which Harry had at least minor experiences in dabbling in, but their were other uses, physical enhancement was among those uses and such could prove useful in regards to experimentation.

Harry swung his legs off the couch, as was typical he elected to watch the news it was perhaps the only real benefit he saw to technology, not that magic couldn't accomplish the same thing mind you, was TVs ability to show the news.

Vernon trudged into the kitchen, the man appeared to be nursing the aftermath of a night of drinking.

Life at Privet in summer was subdued at the best of times these days Dudley, and his own minions were in Harry's opinion were like orcs meaning the biggest, and stupidest, was the one in charge, spent the days either lounging or causing trouble about the neighborhood. Petunia would spend her days gossiping and spying on the neighbors for more things to do the prior about. Vernon after the incident basically ate breakfast, went to work, came home, watched the news, and went to bed, rinse and repeat. As to the young wizard well he the spent the mainstay of his time doing one of for things eating, sleeping, plotting or reading, but mainly he spent it plotting.

Harry had spent the day before, loath as he was to do such a mundane task as it was, on the most bothersome task of shopping for clothes. Frankly Harry's grades were high enough most schools would have accepted him it was mainly his anti social attitude that was the problem. Of course if it meant getting away from the Stupid Patrol, Dudley and his minions, he would not be above convincing certain members of a school to handle issues involving his enrolment.

Irritably the young magic user grabbed a juice as Vernon opened his morning newspaper as was typical and Dudley whopped his stick on the kitchen tiles, again something that had become commonplace.

There was a click of the mail slot and then the flop of letters on the doormat, Vernon didn't look up from his paper, "Get the mail, Dudley."  
A glower came from Harry and the tub of lard scampered off after Harry's hand trailed towards the metal pole when Dudley gripped his smelting stick, though not before he grumbled a bit.

When he returned he dropped two things on the table and no one paid any further attention to the matter. Tomorrow however the letter Dudley concealed this day would cause all manner of hell to break loose, but for the mean time Harry would be spending the day practicing the arcane.

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: More or less dark High Fantasy style Harry he's pretty much meant to be evil uncaring hateful yada, yada. Overall meant to be an utter bastard, none the less he'll be no where near all powerful in comparison my other fics.

He'll be working for it to accomplish his goals, and to be frank this will follow canon closely other than the Death Eaters are more or less active even though Voldemort is out of the picture for the time being a Pureblood social club. If you can call a racist motivated terrorist group a social club.

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	2. Chapter 2 Entering the Wizarding World

Chapter 2

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: To the point I can't think of anyone who would make a good Knight to Harry's mage character to back him up that exists, so I'm considering an OC, hmm something to think about though if you guys have suggestions please share.

Oh yeah in addition to the mandatory, cliché now, shopping Harry will get the likewise cliché Gringotts meeting, as to goblins in question Harry's goblin minions are not gringotts because frankly 'they is as dumb as doornails', simpering flunky kleptomaniacs while Gringotts goblins have to be at least somewhat intelligent, which will really freak Harry out.

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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Needless to say Dudley had gotten grounded, and thoroughly lectured by Vernon on the subject of hiding the letter from the Wizard school. Though Harry hadn't made his return to Privet Drive in time to hear this little lecture having gone to finally check on his minions and make sure work was proceeding.

He frankly doubted the goblin taskmasters, with the whip cracking, would allow any slacking but checking from time to time didn't hurt anything. The doubts were of course correct the goblins had allowed no one to slack off.

Even so Harry didn't both paying his relatives any attention when he returned he was far to busy caught up in his own plotting they were to cowed to make a legitimate threat against him. No, no his spiders would kill them long before then it was the primary reason Harry was so anti social possible dangers posed by people after all his goals were quite ambitious after all.

For the time being he would be focusing on mastering more magic spells he could not allow himself to grow dependent useful in most situations did not mean they suited every situation that existed. His magic reserves were growing but not fast enough that was why he was resorting to certain things, namely siphons to drain more magic than the spell required of course such things could become a burden as he had realized, in truth he had been grossly under prepared for such an early battle.

Going over what he had would keep him busy but it didn't change the fact he still needed to acquire more minions, which of course meant sooner or later summoning another batch of them, he also needed to get stronger.

It was a task, summoning, that required a large deal of preparation and a great deal of energy something that Harry was loath to expend in his current state of paranoia given the recent attacks against the school.

Just because there was the threat of another attack he didn't want to put off the reinforcing of his minions it wouldn't due to delay but at the same time he didn't like the idea of having to expend so much energy in the process.

Keeping a constant eye on all of Surrey was also out of the fucking question no certainly doing that had no guarantees of preventing further attacks not with teleportation being a readily accessible skill.

Lucky for the Dursleys it was thoughts like these, which preoccupied Harry's mind for the time being otherwise he would have likely flown into a rage over the concealing of something from him.

Making no mistake the Dursleys did of course realize that their plan to keep the letters from Harry depended upon the fact that the wizards would give up if he didn't reply and that of course meant keeping him from getting the letters.

Not that Harry would catch on not with all the things he had preoccupying his time at the moment, certainly not. He'd find out soon enough when the letters started getting a bit absurd in their arrival.

Over the next few days Harry began to get suspicious, the Dursley's had been getting stranger and stranger. To the point even he with his extended absences was starting to catch wind of the odd behavior.

Precautions he put in place in the event they tried anything had already been deployed and in the event they were that stupid well Harry was sure he could capitalize on the more than numerous horde of toxin carrying spiders in the house.

Quite a few other minions were readily accessible in the area as well, those to had been precautions he had set up after the little fiasco at the primary school. He hadn't liked doing that transferring minions from caves and woods but he had deemed it less troublesome than the alternatives risks.

Right now the contempt he felt for the lack of security that had allowed the black cloak mooks to pierce so far into what he considered his was fresh, and if he was able to capture any of them alive their remaining time on earth would no doubt be agonizingly long before they were finally killed.

Still time was for the moment on their side and well by the time Harry was informed on the matter well hopefully his anger would be focused elsewhere. Indeed that would be the case of what would come, but the Dursleys were still nearly pissing themselves in fear of a repeat of the incident of four years ago except this time young Harry Potter would have just that amount of time of magical experience added.

There were things that were currently beyond his ability to do. In the realm of minions he had no ability to summon human minions, so in that field he would have to go about it the old fashioned way, recruiting.

Unfortunately something like that really did not make him in the least bit pleased even so he acknowledged it was the only way. It wasn't impossible for him to be civil still it didn't mean he had to like it. No he recognized the problem even with the research he had done he acknowledged that he would need assistance.

Very clearly he had noted that he was at present no to physically impressive and even with magic supplementing his strength that he had minions, who admittedly were few in number, who were stronger then him. He would require back up of the physical kind a knight, warrior, barbarian, or whatnot. To summarize he required a champion of pure offense, and this was something that irked him to no end.

What in this case irked him about was of course the dependence on someone to defend him. He had never had such thing. There was a very fine difference in minions they fought other minions and did minion stuff, champions were lieutenants you were supposed to trust them.

Harry Potter did not trust, he was a creature of contempt he despised the majority of all the things he had encountered thus far. Trust was something alien to him. Still it would be better to find one champion he could trust than a hundred who he could not.

If those idiots don't' stop making a racket, he thought contemptuously as he heard the ruckus down stairs. The threat trailed off wonder exactly what could be causing such a bothersome amount of noise.

Just for the barest moments his paranoia flared into life before replaced with undulating hate and contempt magic wrapped around him flowing like an icy wind over his flesh and across it.

Kept from exploding out an ethereal glow began to form over his skin as aether struggled to break the air and crash out in lightning. The lights flickered in the house as the magic interfered with the technology.

Like the shadow of the eclipse the ground was soon covered by hundreds of thousands of spiders, which crawled along the ground appearing from small cracks in the walls of just emerging from space itself.

Magic flowed around him and the glass of water Harry been about to drink projected the ongoing events of living room. Events that told him nothing of what was going on but that whatever nonsense was going on was not in the den.

Not caring if it tipped his hand he sent the spiders crawling seeking out any thing, which was living, in the house. What he found did nothing for his annoyance there was nothing here well nothing besides the usual the Dursleys were under no bewitchments that he could discern and there were no strangers present.

Of course he would have noticed their suspicious behavior had been mounting over the past week had he actually bothered to pay attention rather than going about his regular routine as if nothing was the matter.

Perhaps due to the fact he had done nothing but practice magic and oversee varying other tasks he had missed these signs. Harry scowled and allowed his magic to recede back into his flesh and noted he'd need to replace the lights in his room, again.

The young wizard growled well at least he hadn't blown out the window again, or set the curtains on fire, or any other number of annoying things. Harry wrenched the door to his room open despite his mastery in teleporting it was better to walk at times especially since it might give his temper time to cool.

"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked in amazement from his position where he was huddled outside the kitchen.

Harry spared his tub of lard kin a freezing glance, "What on earth are you babbling on about now Dudley?" It wasn't simply a glare that made it frightening but the aether, which pulsed through his body and hung like a dreadful mist around him.

"Ah there you are," Vernon had stuck his head out of the kitchen, "We're going on a trip so uh go uh pack some clothes both of you." The rotund drill salesman instructed with intermittent pauses in between his words.

The main reason for the stumbling over his words was the fact the young wizard had a large number of spiders crawling about some of them particularly large all of them dangerous looking. After a minute Harry shrugged, "Eh I've got research to do, pick me up some polished stones," With a thought he teleported from the room leaving a greatly relieved Vernon in his wake.

Coming and going was something that was fairly frequent from the young wizard if the other wizards couldn't get him a letter well then the boy wouldn't go to school, though whether such a thing was positive or negative could be debated.

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Most days during summer about the only thing he did at Privet was the obligatory sleeping and eating and the occasional studying so the Dursleys deciding to take an impromptu trip, given their present weirdness didn't really concern him.

Normally he'd focus his time elsewhere usually traipsing through the varying woodlands where he wasn't likely to be disturbed. If the Dursleys were skipping down for a bit he figured he'd just go ahead and get the summoning out of the way.

Of course there were more pressing matters London was becoming crowded by a foul bloody aura. Such a thing was something that only barely was a thing he was familiar with. It was an event that nearly was beyond his experience whatever was gathering in the capital was a force to be worried about.

Perhaps if the aura was smaller he wouldn't have cared but the fact was there were to many whatever it was gathering for him not to deem such a risk unwise. After all walking into such a situation with so many dark forces would be foolish, he didn't have the resources to wage a small scale war in London, not at the moment not without critically damaging his pool of minions.

For the moment it would be better to simply ignore the situation that was brewing in the capital it simply wasn't worth the resource expenditure to deal with such an ominous dark power, at least not in the present conditions. Even if it would keep him from nursing his habit of draining life force as he normally did given the danger potentially risked by going to London when he didn't know exactly what was the source of the ominous cloud it was worth it.

Going by what he knew told him little and that was unacceptable facing an unknown enemy of such numbers was totally out of the question with his present forces if he had the opportunity to avoid them. So for now he'd focus on observing after all he no reason at all to concern himself with London's problems. Besides he wasn't going to waste any minions on the capital not when he had just become aware of the hidden world of magic that place also merited his attention. It wouldn't do at all to tip his hand while they were still unaware of his true power and disposition of forces.

Having this in mind he recalled the old, ancient even, advice all warfare is based on deception. Since all life was a struggle it would be best to keep his forces in reserve and only expend them when such was necessary and London's problems didn't concern him not now if the shadow remained he might have to take action but that could be done after he had acquired more information of the source of the disturbance.

In any case Harry had made his decision to evaluate both before making a move on either of them. To do other wise would have simply been foolhardy. Contemplating an attack while knowing ones forces would be ill suited was something that he had no intention of doing not when such a fight could be avoided.

Just because he knew that there was something there did not mean one had to rush off and commit assets to figuring out what it was. A direct confrontation was completely out of the question, not only because such a thing was stupid, and Harry was also adverse to sacrificing minions needlessly at the present.

In any case given these number of disturbances Harry had decided to take a bit of a shortcut in regards to his preparation. The shortcut being gravity wards and healing wards carved into the numerous, and otherwise completely pointless fashion accessories, belts that he wore on any given day.

Justifying the use of magic as necessary as he really didn't have time to waste in his already extremely convoluted schedule for doing physical fitness. Besides it wasn't like he was going to have to kill a giant man killing scaly beastie within the next two years now was he?

Clearly one should not go about tempting fate should one. Whatever the case Harry sincerely doubted he'd need to rely on physical not at the present state of his plans clearly not with the world as it was. After he got rid of bothersome technology swords and such melee weapons would of course return as would magics dominance but until then he doubted there was any need to waste time on enormous physical fitness regimes. Most certainly did he not have any intentions of doing what Vernon was suggesting his baby whale spawn under take.

Dark rugs were laid out beneath his feet, his workshop was for the most part plain with light being for the most part provided by luminescent moss, though there were candles or torches and even the occasional crystal. A large armoire held several spare change of clothes for him in the event of an accident.

Even after three years this place was still fairly simple as far as lairs went, certainly it was unable to compare to those of lore. Still it was growing the scampering masses of goblins insured that construction was ongoing.

Few, besides the Dursleys, were aware that he went to a personal tailor to get his odd for most, normal for him, clothes. Actually the old Russian tailor provided clothes for nearly all the living beings who inhabited the lair, human or otherwise.

The small creatures in question were covered in leathery almost scale like dark green scales that at times bordered on black. Overall they had a tendency to be while borderline idiots could be cunning in the vein of I'll pop out and beat you into submission when you least expect but other than that not to bright, to the point most goblins could barely speak a fragmented form of English, one of the many reasons he kept a bottle of aspirin in his pocket at all times.

Of course it wasn't simply their atrocious English it was the fact they kept getting blood stains on his carpets, the wizard gritted his teeth in annoyance a he ran a finger down the dark crimson splotch.

He turned hearing the sliding of scales upon stone, "Your late," He all but snarled in a sibilant hiss.

"I apoligize master," The beast hissed back slithering just out of mostly illuminated area where the young overlord was hunched over papers. "There is no further evidence of any more of the activity by the faction."

By which of course was meant the dark cloak mooks, it was possible his reprisal perhaps had been fierce enough to dissuade them of any further notions of attacking or perhaps the apparent dark lord they served was furious at the failure and was brooding over the defeat, each scenario was as likely as the next.

Considering his options at the moment it was probably the wisest course of action to not attempt to seek them out. Doing such a thing with out further information on the mooks would have been dangerous. Still Harry was greatly averse to allowing the slight of their attack to go unopposed.

Even so he didn't have the resources to pursue such a trivial vendetta, not yet anyway perhaps in the days to come but not yet, nor did he have the faintest inkling of where the dark cloak mooks were making base.

Still between the suspicious activities of the Dursleys, the dark miasma that was oppressing London, and the attack he was getting steadily more annoyed because of such constant interruptions.

After a few moments of enduring an almost lyrical report there was the sound of feet scuffling across the stone of the darkened lair. The first minion coiled itself its scales rubbing against on another as it prepared to strike at a moments notice.

"Master, Master," Came the voices of the newcomers. The new comers hurled themselves across the floor gripping the carpet and beginning the usual goblin kowtowing. "We brought a human child," Sadly that was about the limit of their English speaking abilities.

Harry stared at the two scaly creatures, before he felt a tug on his absurdly fashionable long and flowing coat. "Are you Jareth?" Asked the diminutive child staring up at him with creepily large eyes.

"I hate that movie," He remarked with a slump and a groan, as the brat proceeded to poke him in the side, causing him to fix the goblins with a death glare, "what have I said about kidnapping children?"

The two scaly creatures looked at one another, "no do it?" One asked, in a confused voice.

"So what is this doing here, take her home immediately!" He growled, besides it wasn't like any one would actually believe a kid when they said that there were goblins in the woodlands, it'd get written off as their imagination, teenagers on the other hand could potentially be a much bigger problem why he generally let them get eaten or another equally terrifying fate.

A tense silence followed, mainly occupied by the aspiring overlord glaring at the dark green scaled creatures tapping his foot impatiently. "Taking home," Squeaked the second goblin hastily.

"Bye Jareth," A barely audible growl emanated from the back of the boy's throat as the girl was taken out of his workshop.  
Harry slumped annoyed and leaned his back against the table and after making sure there were no other annoying interruptions spoke up again, "We'll keep an eye on the situation in the capital for the time being."

"As you wish," Hissed the voice in the shadows allowing the flash of gleaming scales in the light. Scales scraped against one another, "I could,"  
Beating down accepting the suggestion just to let the beast go out and wreak havoc in order to draw out the enemy took more effort than he cared to admit to, "Forget just forget it we're not even sure that would work in drawing them out." Much as he'd of liked to the let the creature go on a rampage it was out of the question for the time being there were simply to many unknowns at present.

Case and point was they still didn't have a clue exactly what dark breed was responsible for the ominous aura that was hanging over London like a dense fog, and there were no indications such a malevolent attack would draw the cause out in the open.

Due to this fact Harry was forgoing any hostile action at least any that whose consequences weren't known. At least for the time being he would hold off once their numbers increased well that might have been a different story.

For the time being they, or more aptly he, would just have to wait and bide his time until everything was ready. Something that while tedious would give him time to prepare for the inevitable conflict to come. He'd check and see if the Dursleys were doing anything and maybe crash at whatever hotel they were staying at, yeah that would be for the best, he thought to himself.

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He steeped his gloved fingers if worse came to worse and the black cloak mooks or some other enemy challenged him he could always take them off. Over time his magical reserves would grow and to facilitate that he relied on things to boost his growth namely in this case siphoning his magic off little by little. Such a thing in a fight was a problem one that Harry hadn't thought to contemplate up until this point.

In the mean time he'd keep a cautionary eye on the Dursleys while Vernon acting weird due to the influence of alcohol was not terribly uncommon, he being a really silly drunk and all, the current behaviors fit no previous set of actions.

Just for the time being he'd spend the night with them making sure they were at least some what acting normal, maybe catch a nap and then in the morning would teleport away lest he get bothered with some triviality.

Due to this little turn of events and the fact of the matter he was consecutively missing his letters from a certain magical school. It was really all quite a stupid bit of luck and the of course the mail kept coming because well it was suspected about the Dursleys and the fact was he was the 'boy who lived'. Of course he only become aware of this tid bit of information due to what could only appropriately be called badgering it out of the red cloak mooks.

Even with the removing of the labor of two years worth of research might still not be capable of tipping things in his favor. A ball of fire cracked in his hand, what a load of shit, he thought, I'll teach those mooks next time they won't get the chance to escape I will kill every last one of them on the field.

Finally with that matter out of the way he leaned back the next matter on the agenda was of course more plotting and the recruiting of minions. Quite simply just more of the usual when it came to his time being spent on planning.

He had really paid no further attention other than a cursory examination to how strangely the Dursleys were acting, but this was starting to get ridiculous. Family trips, okay he couldn't really speak on matters like this, weren't supposed to involve going to the ass end of nowheres, he paused okay maybe they were.

Giving a final sigh he settled back and listened to the thunder roar and the waves crash in the background. Vernon Dursley had apparently deemed the perfect place for a nice normal family vacation as a rock out in the sea. Actually they were bunking in the little shack that was built on top of the rock out in the sea. Not that there was that much more comfort provided by the shack than what was found on the rock to say nothing of what a bother the storm was going to be.

Just because he had a couple lightning evocation spells under his belt didn't mean he was particularly fond of stormy weather… oh wait he didn't like a lot of stuff in general so maybe there wasn't a reason to complain.

Keeping his annoyance to himself he had, at least in his mind, generously remedied the lack of fire in the fireplace, after Vernon had miserably failed, by creating a large blaze though for what purpose he was unsure seeing as he doubted he would be staying for long in this dump.

Likely he would depart from the stupid rock and maybe catch a midnight snack amuse himself with some late night readings and turn in for the night. Still he paused to consider the shack on the rock in the see sure it was a dump now but with some work maybe it could be a workable hideaway, but for that he would need resources. He paused for a moment to consider options for getting money protection rackets might be useful but such a thing could also bring more trouble. The truth was despite not being colossally intelligent his goblin minions were very good thieves and burglars in fact that was one venue he had already begun exploiting. He was exploiting that method because well for one getting supplies delivered to the lair would kinda defeat the purpose of a 'hidden' lair, that and he didn't want to waste what little monetary assets on something so trivial as acquiring food and furnishing for the lair.

Minutes passed slowly not that he was particularly paying attention seeing as he was busy considering his options. Soon enough midnight had arrived and a sharp boom thundered and rattled the shack on the rock in the sea.

No one failed to react to the booming even if some responses were stupider than others such as his tub of lard cousin asking where the cannon was as he had tumbled on to the ground.

On the other hand Vernon had come rushing into the room with a rifle of all things, and proceeding to announce it.

Potter's remaining scion didn't both with such dramatics magic coursed through the cold metal of his staff as he embraced to cold of his magic as the door flew off its hinges. In the doorway was a giant of the man, and Harry was aware of what giants looked like even if he had only seen a handful of them.

The man in the doorway's face was almost completely hidden by a long shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled bear, though his black glittering eyes were still visible. Newcomer squeezed his way into the shack, albeit with his great height he had to stoop and even then it only barely kept his head from scraping the ceiling.

Whatever the case the man seemed to ignore the risk of an impending death, either from the gun that Vernon had or Harry's staff, and casually fitted the door back into its frame with nary a word. The bantering that followed actually was fairly amusing. "Vernon you're not helping in the slightest." Harry grunted leaning on his staff. The large non magical relative squeaked as lightning crackled along the length of the metal and nodded hastily.

"Anyway – Harry," The giant said seemingly not noticing any of it, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat for yeh. I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right." From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly crumpled box within which was a large stick chocolate cake wishing him a happy birthday.

The gift was actually rather odd, but considering the Dursleys were the absolute worst sort when it came to being family it didn't matter much, "Mmmh not to be rude but who are you exactly?"  
"True," Chuckled the newcomer, "I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid keeper of the keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

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Overall the resulting explanation had taken the better part of an hour, culminating in about half way through with Harry having enough of Vernon's complaining and having the walrus of a man gagged by a spider, which positively delighted Hagrid, course that could have been just the spider.

Besides the obvious matter of introductions Hagrid had explained some what more about the wizards culture and confirming more or less what he already knew about his parents' deaths, information he had gathered from the other wizards.

Apparently the wizards had at least several schools in Britain though this Hogwarts place was supposedly the best of them. Whether that was true or not Harry was unsure considering he lacked accurate information on the other schools. In any case he had been most suspicious of the labeling of the letters.  
Excluding a few minor details he had not learned much more, apparently the dark cloak mook's leader had been defeated, by him no less as an infant, of course leading him to only be further angered by the sticking him with the Dursleys afterwards, but prior to said person's death he'd been killing off other wizards.

Harry had been rather adverse to heading to London especially when Hagrid had mentioned they needed to go shopping of all things, the young wizard even bringing up the ominous miasma that was surrounding the capital. Still the too had set off much to his disgust aboard the subway.

It was more or less a rather well known fact Harry would sooner help children with their homework than elect to ride mass transport, demonstrating as was typical just how much the young wizard despised crowded places. "I reiterate I do not have the resources to fight off the cause of this miasma without sustaining heavy casualties," He was quite against going into London without further information or at the very least some scant hint of the cause of the miasma's cause, unfortunately there was little choice.

Just having to ride the underground was normally sufficient to usually annoy him to high heaven, the fact it was under the present circumstances put him on edge even more. What was ever causing the aura or rather the group of whatever was a serious possible danger to his plans while it was theoretically possible he would not be bothered Harry did not like the idea of risking such without further information, seeing as he very much doubted that he could recruit the cause of the dark aura… for now. That was precisely the matter, which was concerning him though for now.

Knowing that for the time being was what kept him cautious and more importantly alert at the present he could not afford to loose critical assets as such a thing would add years to his plans in the need to recoup such losses engaging in a real battle in London would also run the risk of attracting unwanted attention. Well frankly traveling with the massive form of Hagrid in tow was already getting odd looks on the underground, not that a well placed mentally generated spike of pain didn't' fix but that was irrelevant.

Like many things Harry had over the morning found the Wizarding world to be just as annoying as the non magical one. Among his more noticeable reason for fuming was having to go shopping again so soon. He openly sneered at the idea of wearing an actual pointed hat, and was tempted to go against the plain black robes, if not for the fact he assumed it was because of the fact they were plain so as to prevent damage.

Making sense of the shopping list was relatively easy it was mainly clothes, something he of course detested shopping for, books, objects which were much more acceptable, and then there was the annoying stereotypical magical equipment.

Naturally he was also quite aggravated that he had missed the existence of a hidden society a magical one in London of all places. Arriving at their destination also was another thing that seemed to great on his nerves it was a small rather grubby pub of all things. Hagrid however assured him the place was famous, had Harry been sure that the glamour in place did nothing other than keep non magical's from noticing the place he would have thought the grubbiness was also an illusion.

Of course his irritation only reached new heights upon entering the establishment mainly because it wasn't well ventilated. The smell of smoke did nothing at all to improve his irritable move, his thumb moved over the textured surface of his metal pole, the weapon was in fact taller than he was. What had once been simple metal had been warped to dark black non reflective steel with intricate magic wrought patterns. The weapon was strangely warm from its own magic.

People noticed their arrival, Harry assumed correctly just from the looks that Hagrid received he was not only a regular but also a welcome one at the pub. This was confirmed at least the regular when the barman made his inquiry. Still Harry could identify that most of the customers were tense and the door on either end was reinforced wood banded with iron and had seemed to be enchanted.

Quiet did not begin to describe his movements as he walked, it was a trait that he'd acquired before the incident. Harry pressed his glasses further up his nose with his index finger. "So secret entrance or what?" He inquired as offhand as he could considering the number of people paying attention, it was causing his paranoia to flare all these people staring at them.

"Right, err the entrance to the alley is in the back," Hagrid remarked rubbing the back of his shaggy head with one massive hand, before doing his best to clear a path through the crowd.

Snorting Harry let his magic curl around his flesh slowly he began to fade becoming as if he was becoming transparent. The young wizard had mastered the ability the previous year, the fact was it was pretty useful. He didn't like the idea of making physical contact with so many people and he'd be glad to get outside and in the open out of this smoke tainted shack which positively reeked of the smell of alcohol and tobacco. Such places as pubs were places for the lower elements or the people who were apart of the path of the sacrifice at least in fantasy.

To clarify the typical heroes of fantasy, were the people of the sacrifice, they were fools people who prepared to discard themselves for the weak. In contrast Harry only intended for him to suffer the least from now on, the thing he desired most was freedom and power. For the sake of accomplishing such things the suffering of others was irrelevant to him, completely unnecessary of consideration.

Using the intangibility he slipped past the crowd who had begun clamoring around the entrance, he allowed his body to return to the standard phase and then spoke. "Lets be going Hagrid," Harry expected that magic use like what he was doing was normal since the half giant didn't comment, nor did he care that his display had caught the attention of a certain teacher at the school he was seemingly going to attend.

Very discretely the young wizard surveyed the street the password locked brick wall was actually a pretty clever idea, he was forced to admit in regards to getting inside the secret magical shopping area. Spiders crawled from inside his coat relaying their observations on the alleyway to him.

Walking down the cobblestone streets Harry paid nothing but to take minor notation to the goings on in the alleyway barely containing his desire to show contempt at the idea of using brooms to fly, though he did take note of the semi alert red robed wizards who were stationed around the alley.

Examination of the snowy white building astounded him, the building was just one of sheer size and white marble and burnished bronze doors it wreaked of magic powerful magic not as ancient as the groves obviously but still old. More than that was the uniformed goblin guards, but that didn't necessarily surprise him after all surely he wouldn't have been the first to put them to use.

It was the exchange between Harry and the bank worker that jarred him the most as he starred on as Hagrid conversed with the goblin.

The young wizard blinked in shock and took a step back from the teller stand his eyes had if anyone cared to note was twitching erratically.

"'Arry whats the matter?" Hagrid asked turning to look at the aspiring evil overlord, not that he knew that little bit. "Harry? Harry?" The half giant probed growing increasingly nervous at the ominous silence. "You alright there Harry?"

Pausing to recompose himself, he pointed at the goblin, "It just spoke English," Hagrid nodded, "WHAT THE HELL and its wearing normal clothes as well its too bloody early in the morning for this shit I need an Aspirin." He groaned, he had after all been expecting slight differences between the wild goblins but this was just utterly ridiculous the banks were run by Goblins that basically launched one big this does not compute in his mind.

After a moment he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small red and white bottle, "I knew I brought these for a reason," With that he popped the top off and downed a mouthful of pills. "Now where we?"  
"Does Mr. Potter have his keys?" Inquired the goblin not even perturbed, after there were weirder reactions from other wizards, by the reaction.

Harry mentally conked himself on the head, how had he forgotten that, "Yeah Hagrid I would appreciate you giving me my keys. You are holding on to them right being the keeper and everything?" At least he was hoping Hagrid had the keys access to what he hoped was a substantial fortune, or even a small one would be greatly beneficial to his plans in both the long and short run.

Especially with the recent run of trouble that he had been having, certainly he wanted to discern the cause of the miasma in London. If only so he could make his own plans on how to deal with it. Such a malefic aura could well pose a threat to him, and of course his own goals.

"Follow me," The small goblin grudgingly hopped off its stool and gestured for them to tag along after him. Harry ran his fingers over the unnaturally warm metal of his patterned black metal staff. Intelligence from the goblins it was odd but it could be dealt with.

After they had confirmed the keys, which Harry had deposited in his pocket, the two magic users and the Goblin waited the apparent supervisor goblin to arrive. The young wizard sat in the chair leaning his shoulder upon his staff as they waited. Unexpected things like this he needed to compile what he knew, he needed more information these wizards they were unknowns.

Because he lacked information that was what Harry wanted to gather he needed to know exactly what was at his disposal and find out he would. The Wizarding world was an unknown that would have to change.

Casing over what he knew took little time. To his knowledge there were to factions the red cloak mooks were apparently the equivalent of the city watch with all the ability of the group, and the dark cloak mooks were the servants of some dark lord or another who probably wanted to conquer magical society or something.

Diagon Alley, this place this hidden place in London was apparently the major shopping center for the wizards in England. It was hardly impressive the place besides the fact that it was hidden so well.

Except the bank this place was interesting true the goblins running it was a surprise but it was an interesting one. The fact that goblins could be intelligent could be useful after all they already had their uses this merely expanded on it.

Facing facts he was aware that there were magical schools across the country of England and no doubt elsewhere in the world. This school was the place where he would be spending no doubt the next few years.

Going by this there was still a lot he didn't know his understanding of the monetary system was lacking considerably that needed to be remedied. No money wasn't the only issue the wards surrounding this place alone were something that had completely captured his attention he needed more information on that as well. His own attempts at wards were traps and concealments this put his works to shame. For him to be out done on such a scale no he wouldn't let such a thing stand.

Hopefully this school Hogwarts if it really was so high class would be of use, and if not well he'd just do what he usually did and figure it out himself. Still if Wizarding society existed that meant logically there must be conflict. Obviously the conflicts of the past must have resulted in the creation of more spells for fighting.

Indeed there was already some kind of conflict ongoing, these dark cloak mooks had been on the resurgence over the last few years according to Hagrid, though also according to the half giant without their leader the attacks were not nearly as awful as it had been before their master's fall.

Just in case Harry realized he wouldn't be able to put off summoning another patch of minions any longer while they were mooks they still posed a danger when fought in numbers so he'd need to have his countermeasures ready.

From the door in the back of the room came the shuffling of small feet on the marble tiles that comprised the floor, followed by another set of footsteps. "We will now examine the inheritance of Harry James Potter, sole remaining scion of the noble house of Potter." A new goblin announced as the older looking goblin walked up to the table.

"Hagrid this might take a while you want to got get something to eat?" Harry asked tapping the giant, hoping to be left alone.

The half giant shook his bearded head, "Oh no thank ya Harry I don't mind waiting at all," He replied.

With a hop the superior ranked goblin of the two new comers entered his own seat at the large table.

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: Anyway I'm stopping there, Hogwarts will definitely have a few more antics especially since I'm putting the populous of the Wizarding world at higher levels, particularly in regards to half bloods and even purebloods, so if anyone has surnames for wizards feel free to share with me.

It is dark Harry just to reiterate, oh and the obligatory shopping in diagon alley next chapter as well. Seriously I don't get why Harry didn't bust his ass at hogwarts to learn stuff.

I for the record like Labyrinth.

Colin me boy your win a cookie yes the original idea behind the magic was D&D, bravo laddie.

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	3. Chapter 3 Diagon Alley I

Chapter 3

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: look its gotten pretty cliché to go on and on about how wealthy the Potter family and the Black Family are and while that's the case Harry does have a substantial inheritance in this I'm not going to go on and on this early in a fic, its been done before and frankly right now Harry's more interested in the money and using land to set up places to stay, read evil overlord's lair.

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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At least something was going right, Harry though as he felt the heavy weight of the gold pouch at this hip. The wealth available to him was beyond his comprehension still it made him furious that this was the first opportunity he had to access the wealth that was his birthright.

By the end of the day Harry hoped to have a more concrete grasp on all that was now rightfully at last at his disposal, but unfortunately there was shopping to be done. An unfortunate but necessary bother that needed to be completed.

Coming to London in the present environment was a calculated risk given the high likelihood of the dangers posed by what group of beasts that was causing the heinous miasma hanging over the capital. The risk was worth it however it wasn't simply gold and monetary assets that were at his disposal now, no there were lands that were his to use and use he would.

Diagon alley apparently had everything he would need for school, that was good it meant hopefully shopping would only waste minimal time, and then he could move forward to more important issues. Hagrid had apparently picked up some kind of magical artifact when they had made their trip down to the cavernous vaults.

Exactly the nature of the artifact was unclear, though apparently the caves under the bank were quite expansive given the goblins required a high speed railway cart to get around, the carts apparently were guided on their own.

For whatever reason wizards continued to use gold coins and the like as opposed to the usual paper currency, so it weighed a bit more than what Harry had expected when he had been told they were going to get money out of the bank.

Granted such issues didn't really concern him all that much and it certainly was not something that would particularly concern him one way or the other with the possible exception of having to lug around bags filled with gold and silver coins, so Harry didn't particularly care. Still the gold in the vault designated for his school shopping alone was a small fortune and money was money.

He however was not looking forward to shopping, most especially having to go get new clothes and was none to thrilled at the notion of shopping for cauldrons. Unfortunately those things were on the list so he'd have little choice, still he would have preferred to have waited in regards to clothing shopping.

In the young wizard went while Hagrid went off to go get a 'pick me up' at the pub in front of the entrance to the Alley. Clothes shopping didn't really appeal to him actually the mere idea of going shopping typically disgusted, books were an exception because such items actually had the chance being more useful. Knowledge was power as the expression went after all.

Judging by the short witch's reaction to him entering the store she was getting a lot of students who would be attending Hogwarts, and it was something she was used to still the young wizard was irritated at not being permitted to speak. Even so he allowed himself to be led to the back where another boy, about his age was on a stool.

Keeping his field of vision clear Harry loosened the belt like restraints that adorned various parts of his leather jacket. Each of the belts were meant to act in an analogue to wearing weights course they varied between acting as weights on his body and as weights on his magic.

Looking at what appeared to be the standard robes that these wizards wore he would in all likelihood need to make several modifications to accommodate the suppression systems. It would be a lot easier when he was able to devise a permanent ink, as in tattoo based solution which he could disengage at will but as with most things he simply hadn't had the time to focus on such a project. For the time being his gloves handled most of the feeding off his magic siphoning the excess magic in his spells that were cast by hand which of course forced him to be exact, they also absorbed ambient releases of magic that he might have been giving off.

Madam Malkin had him stand on the stool next to a boy with pale pointed features who was having black robes pinned up to the correct length. Harry removed his heavy leather jacket and allowed a robe to be slipped over his head.

Next to him the boy spoke up, "Hello," remarked the blonde, "Hogwarts, too?" The other preteen asked as Harry deposited the metal staff and his jacket off to the side, or rather as he tossed them to the side.

Opting to acknowledge the other kid Harry snorted, "Yeah as it is," He stated hoping that the robe fitting wouldn't take long, making small talk was not something which particularly appealed to him especially with total strangers. He could be polite but he'd be a tad gruff so the other young wizard would hopefully get the idea and shut up.

"Yes my father wanted me to go to Durmstrang but mother wouldn't here about me going so far away," The boy remarked getting the totally wrong impression, "He's next door buying my books and mother's gone up the street to look at wands," The boy, Harry noted spoke with a bored drawling voice, it was actually slightly annoying. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I personally don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow,"

Personally the idea sounded stupid to Harry albeit he found the whole idea of using brooms to fly was ludicrous in the first place, then again using a carpet didn't appeal to him either. Flying in general however intrigued him however it was not something that was an immediate focus of his agenda. In any case the little ponce continued to be a nuisance of himself bantering on about how good, which Harry doubted, he was at some absurdly named Wizarding sport amongst a host of other inane things. "To answer your question I am Potter," Harry stated letting his magic flare as the boy stepped back onto the floor of the shop, as the robe maker finished up, "Madam Malkin exactly how flame resistant are these robes, I'd prefer to not burn them,"  
"Well they come with basic flame protection charms but if you'd like something a bit more substantial I'd go with a more durable material,"

That was something he had been intending to look into anyway, but this merely gave him further reason to go ahead and research such materials that existed in the magical world as well as he had intended to look into synthetic fibers, while freely admitting that non magical people had their inherent flaws he wasn't not going to use them.

Using them it wasn't something he'd have a problem with, it was all for his own benefit after all. He fully intended to exploit his inheritance in the same way wealth he would use it to accomplish his goals. It was his money, still the idea of having land that wasn't on a map intrigued him more than that to have such open areas as the records at the wizard bank indicated would be useful.

Verily he would have little choice but to renovate as it would seem that his family had been dwindling causing some of the houses to fall into disrepair while some of his inheritance had been in limbo since the second world war if not longer. It was another thing he wanted to look into once he had the time for now he had to deal with the bothersome task of clothing shopping, how women enjoyed this baffled him it was such an utterly ridiculous affair.

With regards to the subject of clothes Harry had opted simply to defer to the experience of Madam Malkin as he was totally in the dark in regards to Wizarding clothing materials and their defensive properties. As it stood the woman and her assistant, who was probably sixteen or seventeen, were rather expedient to assist him in shopping for clothes.

At last he finished in the store and was informed that his order should be prepared by the end of the day to pick up his clothes, Harry glanced at Hagrid, "and know you why I detest shopping for clothes,"  
Bobbing his head Hagrid looked around the shops, "Aye didn't think it'd take that long course women are all nutters when it comes to close, nice lady Madam Malkin is no denying that of course," The half giant remarked, "So uh well we need to get your other school supplies, suppose we should head right over to Flourish and Blotts,"  
Certainly Harry had little doubt Hagrid was much more familiar with the alleyway than he himself was however there was something he needed first, "Perhaps it would be more prudent to get a bag and a trunk first so we don't have to lug all this around,"  
"Definitely that's the ticket, that's a brilliant idea Harry, come I know just the place we can go to the place ole mad eye Moody got his trunk isn't no finer trunk maker in all of the country mark my words," Stated the half giant, "you'll definitely find a trunk you'll like in that store, come to think of it we can get you a bag there as well, the proprietor of the shop has all kinds of stuff. Get you one that has a bunch of compartments so you can store whatever you end up buying,"

Exactly what does one do to earn the nickname mad eye Moody, Harry wondered not sure if should have been worried or not. Still he was intrigued at finding out what the half giant meant when he said multiple compartments.

Following after the colossal groundskeeper wasn't all that difficult as people pretty much parted to allow him through pretty much like the biblical story involving Moses who was when one thought about it probably a wizard, maybe possibly Harry didn't really care one way or another.

Getting from Madam Malkin's robe shop to the apparently highly recommended luggage store took about five minutes, which for preteens, planning world conquest or not was a bothersome pain in the ass, it didn't help that the half giant had such a long stride in comparison to the much shorter stride of the young wizard. The shop was deceptively spacious on the inside given the small two story exterior.

"Hagrid don't tell me you broke that crossbrow of yours again!" Shouted a voice from the back of the shop. Apparently Hagrid was a bit of a frequent customer Harry looked around, trunks and bags were not the only thing this place carried it seemed there was even a small selection of books, among other things.

In any case the proprietor of the store was a tall man, barely a head's taller than Hagrid was, and unlike many wizard Harry had observed up to this point was positively rippling in muscles, burly did not begin to properly describe the man and judging by the heavy leather blacksmith apron and the fact he smelled of charcoal Harry was guessing this guy was an actual blacksmith, which would be potentially useful. If the young wizard were to guess he would presume Hagrid and the proprietor were the same age or there about.

"Jacob McGuffin," Grunted the large man looking down at Harry, "Welcome to the family shop, the Mcguffin Shoppe you can break it I fix it, need it built I can build it, if you need it broken I can tell you how, course that last one you won't need much help with if your anything like your old man little Potter," Stated the proprietor in way of greeting the young wizard as he stripped off the heavy, what Harry, presumed were dragon hid gloves, "So I presume you didn't break the damned crossbow of yours again?"

The half giant shook his head, "Nope we're here to get Harry a magic trunk like ole mad eye got," Remarked Hagrid giving a nod in the young wizard's direction,

"Krakens, Rubeus I don't keep trunks like just lying around," The man commented with a have of his hand, "Moody's trunk was built to precise specifications, what he actually does with all that I don't have a clue but still I don't just stock trunks like that for selling right off the shelf," He sighed, "Come on I got a couple multi compartment trunks we will just have to find one that will work until I can get around to make Potter junior one to his specific specifications paranoid bastard Mad Eye is would throw a damn cow if I made a duplicate of his trunk," The trio of magic users, Hagrid included followed the owner of the store up the stairs.

Looking over the trunks made it quite apparent that wizards here if nothing else had truly refined the art of making trunks, tents, and every other storage device known to man to absurd levels. The idea of having a tent which when set up, done by a rather simple verbal command spell, featured a full stocked kitchen as well as living area and place to sleep was actually rather interesting. Given that wizards had managed to be able to do that with trunks was likewise pretty impressive, if somewhat annoying that they had wasted no doubt loads of time in figuring out such a thing, though being able to have access to such an abundant storage space, and one that could shrink no less, was a very useful tool.

Many uses or not shopping in the McGuffin Shoppe had taken almost as long as shopping for thrice damned wizard clothes had. It was around the time Harry had been making his final selections, Harry having ended purchasing more than just a trunk at the shop, that in another part of the alley Draco had finally remembered to inform his daddy that he had met Harry Potter in Madam Malkins.

"Yeah see me and Jacob were at Hogwarts together," Hagrid explained as they walked into the book store, a shop that was called Flourish and Blotts, "Real good guy your father was a regular customer at his shoppe as well."

"Nothing involving a flying motorcycle by any chance," Harry inquired motorcycles didn't really interest him that much, then again neither did riding horses, or brooms for that matter, but he still was curious.  
"Oh no think your dad and his friends did that on their own," Hagrid seemed to trail off uncomfortably, "Why don't we split up I'll round up your other supplies and you can get you some more books to read while you get your school books, blasted Dursleys not telling you about our world," the half giant complained.

Principally his interest in the flying motorcycle was of course determining exactly what was the technological limit at which things could be merged with magic. Obviously enchanting things like trains would be useful later on, and apparently wizards had already done that but planes seemed to be out, which of course meant they probably still used ships to transport raw materials.

Quite frankly Harry hadn't wanted to go shopping for potions ingredients anyway and so the half giant's offer was pretty convenient besides this way no one would be telling him what he could and couldn't buy at the bookstore. Actually judging by the way things appeared to be he doubted whether any one would try and stop him from buying anything here.  
"Right," He commented nodding to the half giant. Harry surveyed the shelves given the immense variety he expected to come away from this shopping trip with at least a handful's worth of material that could be useful.

Albeit he was disappointed by what he initially found in regards to curses, but given that the books had been out in the open it did make sense. This of course meant he just needed of course to find where they kept the good stuff. In the mean time there were in addition mandatory school books Harry had accumulated a number of other miscellaneous texts on varying subjects.

Based on the sheer number of books available Harry decided he would simply have to come back. Now that he knew where this place was he could just teleport here besides there was still the possible danger of whatever was causing the miasma of dark energy, which was hovering over the capital.

Considerations completed Harry finished grabbing the required school texts and looked around for a few 'spare time' reading materials. Runes and Arithmancy definitely seemed to be worth looking into, at the very least the prior would be of use in supplementing what he already knew.

Dodging past the hordes of annoying other shoppers who were bustling about Harry headed down the aisle he wanted schoolbooks tucked under his arm. The sports books were not something that interested him, which meant he was away from the mainstay of boys his own age.

Examining a book from the shelf he suppressed the urge to send pain through the older boy who had been further down the same aisle and had been looking at the books on the same subject but was now gaping at him.

Frowning Harry snapped the book closed and added it to the books which were already under his arm, deciding to for the time being spare the rude bastard. After all there was little point in causing an incident. The young wizard collected another two books and proceeded to the next aisle.

Given to fits of brutality, or attempts, was more Vernon and as it seemed Dudley as well these fits generally didn't have any finesse to them which of course endeared them little to the magic user. Violence was acceptable, there was no doubt he had little qualms about injuring or even maiming some one if it got him something he desired but Harry preferred to keep it low key if some one went missing for example it could be a possibly serious problem as it could alert the authorities. It was due to this that he considered discretion a far better tactic than just relying on raw brute force, if given the opportunity it was better to deal with said problem in such a way as to not cause suspicion to fall on oneself, this was and would not always be the case of course.

Harry paid little attention to the three, apparently sisters, girls already on the aisle other than noting that they were his own age, and continued browsing through the books on the aisle.  
It was about this time the screaming about Death Eaters started. One such dark cloak mook had the misfortune of heading down the row of books Harry was occupying, "Well what do we have here?" Snarled the man from behind his mask trying to make himself look large and imposing.

"Just in case you haven't missed the lesson last time, here abridged version." Harry growled lashing out with a bolt of mental energy, the dark cloak mook screamed as every nerve in his body seemed to explode in pain. The young wizard brought his metal staff down on the man's hand, "now what have we learned retard?" He demanded narrowing his eyes as the store's light made his glasses shine.

"Who are you?" Screeched the death eater, who was unknown to Harry actually fresh out of Hogwarts himself.

Laughing cockily as a plume of fire glowed around his staff, "I'm Harry Potter, and you mook are going to die," The teenage death eater apparated away, though he left his arm behind in his hasty escape, just as the flame came down.

Making sure to check Harry surveyed the areas around him, whether they were just a horde of mooks or not it wouldn't do to get blindsided. Even with the abilities at his disposal most of the advantages he had in the first fight with the dark cloak mooks certainly Diagon alley was not somewhere he was familiar with and the surroundings negated his previous advantage in range.

Normally, okay he couldn't say that this was only the second time he'd been attacked by an organized magical foe, but the mere idea of fighting in these conditions with little information especially with the aura still hanging over London did not really appeal to him, at all. At the present point in his plan he wanted to avoid open combat so as to avoid drawing attention and minimize possible loss of resources but that wasn't really an issue at the moment.

Opting to at least engage the mooks given the fact they had been fairly easily incapacitated by the tentacles if nothing else the previous time around and once the dark cloak mooks were incapacitated things could be left to whatever came of it. His options at the moment were still rather limited, "Would you be quiet," He snarled impatiently at one of the sniveling girls.

Pausing to recompose himself he allowed his magic to filter through his senses if anything he couldn't afford to permit himself to be distracted. Unlike wizard children he had not been raised on horror stories of the first war. After the defeat of their leader the dark cloak mooks, as Harry called them, had gone underground at least till their leadership, or what was left of it could bribe their way out of prison.

Quiet had been allowed to settle over the Wizarding world until it had been lulled into complacency and then the Death Eaters had started launching minor raids typically they only attacked muggles but occasionally there would be incidents so most the Wizarding world was still ingrained to fear the mere mention of them.

Right now Harry didn't see any reason for the level of fear and thus it really was not helping his impression of the Wizarding world. Albeit his opinion of society in general was usually at the best of times a 'tad' critical so it was nothing particularly new of course wizards had magic and that should have made them better in Harry's opinion the displaying of the fact they were unable to fight these mooks really just pissed the young wizard off.

Swirling around him magic roared sending books flying into the dark cloak mooks who had come into the store. Harry allowed his coat, and by proxy the suppression belts attached to the garment, to fall to the floor. "die," He remarked with a smirk as he titled his head right before he vanished.

The third mook, being the one in the middle ish area of the group of the enemy, took a bolt of lighting to the torso, the lightning then proceeded to leap to the mooks surrounding him. Harry let his feet touch the ground, and tossed his head back "Come on then," He spat clenching his fist riding the invisible energy high that was the result of un suppressing his magic.

Unknown of course to him was the fact that the Death Eaters were in fact just regular rabble not nearly as skilled as the members of the inner circle though admittedly all were at the very least graduates of Hogwarts and somewhat versed in the dark arts all of them coming from 'pureblood' families.

Vicious hatred coursed through his veins, whatever the objective of the dark cloak mooks had originally been didn't matter they had attempted to attack him they were going to suffer for that, immeasurably so. Harry vanished again. Teleportation accomplished the more or less same task as the 'regular' wizard's apparition ability at least in purpose this purpose was of course traveling.

What differed between the two abilities was primarily the method they accomplished the feat of movement thus because they differed Harry would not be impeded by anti apparition wards and likewise apparition would not be impeded by measures to counter teleportation. Still the abilities were more or less similar visually though teleportation did not produce the micro sonic boom 'pop' of apparition, though that noise could be muted by a skilled enough wizard anyway.

As it stood he lacked information on his enemies and was at the further disadvantage of lacking details on the terrain in addition to the fact he had no way of knowing whether or not if the cause of the miasma hanging over London would intervene. This all combined together did not make him all to pleased to be getting into a fight.

Basing what he learned in the previous engagement indicated wizards or at least the dark cloak mooks engaged at fairly close range in fact they were seemingly disadvantaged if forced to fight someone with superior range.

Considering this Harry had weighed the option of simply attacking at range from atop a building but that had its own disadvantages and from his earlier survey of the alleyway there were no truly suitable places to attack from, certainly not one that gave him the ability to attack all of the mooks no matter where they were.

Deciding that finishing up in the bookstore was the best option Harry snapped his hand backwards, evocation was by far his best ability no doubt about that. A whirling vertical wall of blades materialized sheering open the last remaining dark cloak mook's torso causing the man to stumble back bleeding profusely.

Exactly why the Wizarding world was so terrified of these mooks was beyond Harry, of course said mooks were all to used to people being terrified that they weren't used to people actually fighting back that and Harry's 'fighting back' actually constituted fighting back with magic that was rather explicitly combat oriented. If these incompetents were all it to scare the populous in frozen terror then, Harry resolved to focus on his plotting later when he wasn't involved in a potential fight to the death.

Flexing his hand Harry gave the downed masked wizard a malevolent sneer, "You'll be sharing with the class exactly whats going on," and with that statement Harry cauterized the slashes from his previous barrier spell, with a fire spell. The stench of burned flesh filled the room along with the Death Eater's screams.

Giving the man a thoroughly hard swat with his staff, which got him to quiet down mainly because the staff started glowing red, Harry proceeded to grill the, new, dark cloak mook about what they were doing.

"His idea," The Death Eater got prodded with the staff, and immediately coughed up a name, "Rosier, said we needed to make the blood traitors and muggle lovers remember their place,"  
It wasn't anything that really meant anything to Harry, so he was noticeably less inclined to show any mercy, not that he was inclined to that anyway but at the very least after a few more questions had a bit better grasp on the situation. Still the dark cloak mooks were definitely a problem he might have more questions that he'd need answered later so discretion might be in order.

"Just what are you gonna do with him?" Stammered one of the terrified patrons of the shop, stepping forward after Harry knocked the man unconscious with a judicious application of metal to the head.

Keeping the urge to beat some one so obviously stupid into a coma in check was actually a bit more difficult when his magic was un suppressed, so it took about a corner of a second longer to put the damper on his glare, which in itself had been sufficient to send the wizard into a backpedal.

Looking around he noted the shoppers were all crowding around the same area, had these people not heard of area of effect spells, he wondered, of course if I was leading a terror attack I would have had blast fireballs fired in ten meter spreads and withdraw after that surely that would have not only sparked terror but would have been more effective in ensuring the fear remained fresh.

"MacDougal," Stated another man by way of introduction as he stepped up and forward towards the young wizard, "Calvin MacDougal, Mr. Potter its," The wizards seemed to be regaining some of their mobility. They are certainly making more noise now though at the moment. Harry was more focused removing the remaining suppression belts to really want to pay them much attention they were in a potential life or death situation.

Not particularly caring about what the wizards was the younger wizard was more focused on allowing his magic to encircle him without the restraints, oh yes this was positively wonderful.

Out numbered didn't really bother him, not so much seeing as the mooks were rather atrociously incompetent at least as far as he had seen, really it was avoiding having this situation continue on and escalating. He also at the moment wasn't concerned about the way the Wizarding world was set up.

Principally this was due to the fact he acknowledged he was working with critically flawed information in regards to their society and attempting to manipulate their society with that kind of information would probably blow up spectacularly. No while Harry was interested in control he was going to go after it after he had examined the facts not go rushing off without being aware who all was in the 'water'. In regards to purebloods he did not have a concrete idea of what, or more likely who they were and frankly wasn't that concerned about them.

The young wizard didn't care what these people thought, didn't care what they had to say and was none to inclined to be interested in their safety. To him all they were doing right now was a rather good imitation of gnats. Whatever they had to say was totally meaningless to him.

As it stood in the Wizarding world life debts were considered especially serious particularly amongst the purebloods, especially in regards to life debts were generally the basis of swearing oaths of fealty and such.

By and large however muggleborns, with the occasional exception of the occasional member of Ravenclaw house, or likeminded bookworm, stumbling upon the information were generally ignorant of this, however for the scion of an old pureblood family, in this particular case the Potters, to outright ignore something on this scale was outright unheard of.

Considering Harry was totally ignorant of this, something the wizards didn't know and very much assumed he did given the obvious proficiency with magic he displayed, which was also something they weren't questioning it seemed astonishing. Of course Harry didn't know having not been raised in the Wizarding world and nor was he particularly interested in being culturally savvy either.

Depending on who you were in the Wizarding world effected exactly what you expected the legendary boy who lived to be; despite the variety of opinion what was before was not one of those expectations.

Expectations were not one sided and at the moment Harry's opinion of the Wizarding world was steadily deteriorating, not that he had been expecting all that much still the ongoing events were not helping him build a positive perception of the English magical society, and considering he'd never left the country that was all he was interested in, well for the time being.

Frankly direct conquest would be something that would have to wait, there were of course major impediments to address first. Particularly high on this was immortality and the destruction of non magical infrastructure.

Getting into a direct fight the muggle government mano e mano was utterly out of the question. Their technology advantage and numbers gave them far to much of an edge in a direct conflict however while undoubtedly flawed as they were would still be able to overwhelm him in most scenarios unless he took precautions. Still even if he was able to devise a method of releasing a planet wide tech disturbing magical pulse he couldn't be everywhere at once which again brought up the recurring issue of lieutenants.

However all this was irrelevant at the moment as Harry himself recognized that any future conquests would be just that taking place in the future seeing as at the present his resources in manpower alone were preventive of any such moves.

In his present state Harry expected he could probably finish this and withdraw. That at the moment was his primary goal, withdrawing from London while not effective the dark cloak mooks were a threat and them showing up here only proved they were a larger danger than he had expected.

Just about then from across the alleyway a Death Eater was sent flying from the other side of the alley. "Humph least someone isn't completely useless," Harry grunted disparagingly as his fingers glowed a sickly green, it was time to finish this and then get out of town.

Knowledge acquired from the observer spiders had already given him every thing he needed, Harry teleported outside and landed on top of one of the stores and unleashed a volley of acid arrows in rapid succession towards the mass of dark cloak mooks before he teleported again. The majority of his offensive arsenal was evocation due to the general simplicity, though the by and large of those spells were 'arrow' or 'missile' types as he didn't have a firm grasp on more defined elemental manipulation as of yet.

Lashing out again at the spooked Death Eaters he used the black tentacles that had been so effective in the first engagement. It worked, though at the same time had left him open to an attack from behind.

Masking his pain with pure rage Harry let the energy rip from his finger tips the dark cloak mook was sent hurtling backwards. The breaks were fairly clean and wouldn't actually take that long to fix, but still it illustrated how arrogant he had been. "Fucking wankers," He spat teleporting again annoyed at how unprepared he was, as he raised his staff and slamming it into the grounds.

Now while Harry had appeared the Death Eaters hadn't been solely focused on him there were the aurors in the alley and well Hagrid showing up and using a cauldron to smash a second group certainly had been a distraction. This however was something, which got their attention not that it would help any, a torus of flame exploded out ward rapidly superheating surrounding pockets of air.

Out of all his attacks this was probably the second most power consuming pretty much it was three hundred sixty degree blast of fire and heat, lots of it. Due to the high amounts of energy and the noticeable destruction it left, the cobblestones were scorched and some were melted, he didn't use it much it was just too noticeable.

Power that was unrestrained like this was just what was called for however in this situation. The attack however did have its downside that much energy expended so quickly would take its toll and Harry knew it.

A burst of pain spread through his side as he moved, pain was something he was familiar with unfortunate as such a thing might have been so knew he needed to hurry up and eliminate the enemy and then withdraw it wouldn't do to be undefended. "Come on," He growled urging his body just to keep it up a little longer.

By this point the death eaters however had decided to cut their losses and just abandon the attack. Harry wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth that lucky shot that one had managed to get in coupled with the amount of magic he had expended was going to definitely take its toll on him.

With the last of the dark cloak mooks gone however it would be best to finish the shopping he had been doing, and then leave.

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The Dursleys had returned back to Privet Drive and were back to pretending everything was normal and had not mentioned anything at all involving the Wizarding world and as it stood the young wizard didn't see any reason to bring it up.

Harry collapsed onto the thick burgundy rug that had been placed over the stone floor of the cave. The damage to his ribs was nothing he hadn't fixed before. Albeit this was the first time the damage had been caused by magic that wasn't from him experimenting but that was rather irrelevant.

It didn't really matter to him what the wizards thought, so Harry had left as soon as he had paid for his books Hagrid had already paid for his other supplies before he had taken to smashing the dark cloak mooks so that had left only picking up his clothes order, and his wand.

Judging by the apparent weakness of the dark cloak mooks yet the fact they had the ability to terrify the other wizards Harry was not particularly worried at present about potential dangers to his plans. He'd of course keep an eye out for potential threats but if the wizards couldn't stop those losers then surely they'd be unable to defeat his own plans for domination.

Keeping things in perspective however was also important, the fact was the miasma was still hanging over London but there wasn't a direct presence in Diagon Alley though there had been traces of it. This was a serious problem, as though he hadn't been able to do it during the fight comparison proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the dark cloak mooks were not responsible. Meaning of course that another organization had to be behind it and that something could of course prove to be a problem.

Little could be done at present, not while his bones were knitting themselves back together and of course London wasn't something that was all that much of a concern for him. Still he'd be kept from looking into the properties for a little bit longer it seemed and of course this put off summoning another batch for a while.

Making decisions was something that took time reevaluating plans would take even longer especially given the lack of information on the Wizarding world. The additional resources he had gained would be of use of course but for the time being he would have to wait before analyzing exactly what lands were suitable for development.

Now though there was the matter of acclimating the knowledge of wizards into his studies. In his present condition he had decided he would be remaining securely in the woodlands of Surrey.

Of the many things he intended to spend today doing did not involve dealing with a horde of letters. "Your not eating the owls," Snapped Harry to one of the goblins who was eyeing the birds.

As it stood he wasn't keen on the owls having followed him from Privet Drive and into the woodlands but there was little he could do about it. It was simply one of the things he had not accounted for.

By most accounts he had found the letters were thank yous of all things, among the mainstay at least there were other more business related things, and opposite there were less appropriate letters.

Cursing this distraction Harry had the letters collected and sorted into piles, this was done more or less by himself as his own goblins were unfortunately not particularly bright. In fact the majority of the small creatures were also occupied elsewhere.

Deciding his typical morning studies were as good as ruined he grudgingly moved to address the more relevant letters. His 'lair' was rather under furnished though it did feature a number of old pieces of furniture and of course in addition to rows of bookshelves did have an old desk which he primarily used when he needed to pen something. Albeit usually these writings were his own notes, not for addressing potential contacts in a world he had just barely scratched the surface of.

Exactly, he thought irritated, it was true he had barely scratched the surface of the so called Wizarding world and being rash would be unwise. Just as it would be unwise to leave the situation in the capital unmonitored. He wasn't all that surprised that the non magical police were oblivious, well the regular ones but those were the only ones he knew about and thus bothered to check, as ever.

The muggle government wasn't as ignorant as the magical world believed and while it wasn't totally aware of the goings on was privy to the fact that werewolves and vampires existed in addition to wizards and witches.

Such beings were also interested in the cause of the siphoning of energy from the 'lower' elements of the city, and neither were particularly inclined to work with one another or with the muggle authorities. Of course Harry hadn't returned to London since the vampires had arrived in force, hence the miasma, not that he knew that, nor had he had the opportunity to drain anyone's energy recently so the sides were being forced to sit and wait.

Hence why the miasma was still hanging oppressively over the city and why Harry was not eager to return to London and tempt fate. Especially as he had already been attacked once visiting since the aura of malevolence had descended.

The ministry of magic, of England, was apparently giving him some kind of award for his defense, as if that had been his true intention, of Diagon Alley, though Harry wouldn't refuse the monetary award. It would seem that all the wizards were idiots if the newspaper and government was any indication, certainly the two were doing a wonderful job of propagating the idea he'd been actively trying to save the day.

Ideas like that were ludicrous his intention had been merely to remind the dark cloak mooks of their place and nothing more. Oddly however, not that he was particularly concerned, was the almost total lack of mention of Hagrid's efforts in regards to fighting the so called dark wizards. Harry shrugged dismissing the matter, it was all pointless anyway let the fools think what they wanted.

Politics was another matter that concerned him, while he had only briefly scanned over things as they appeared, and he had no intention of trusting something without verifying it first, his distaste for the non magical society was at least somewhat shared by the magical world.

While perhaps a good thing he was also quite capable of noticing that the Wizarding society seemed to have stagnated. This didn't particularly bother him as he was of course only suffering their existence until he could seize control, which would of course be years into the future, for himself. Not that he had any intention of letting this become public no such information would remain a secret for a long time until he was ready to act still it annoyed him at the lack of magical technology.

Aforementioned subject was something he had been particularly interested in if for no other reason than to exploit it. His own efforts to research the subject were hampered by his lack of time and previous lack of resources. With the newly acquired resources or rather the resources had gained from his inheritance the later was more or less expunged the prior however was still in effect but that wasn't likely to change anytime soon.

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: And yes the name used for the storekeeper is intentional, it's a pun admittedly probably a bad one but still its meant to be there.

And hope the chapter was decent it started getting kind of tedious on me, anywho I'm gonna go work on Dark Prince I need to hurry and get another chapter of the Kyushu arc up before some one gets impatient.

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	4. Chapter 4 Rebuilding the Legacy I

Chapter 4

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: Alex I like the word mook though : ( I'll try and refrain from using it so much I didn't realize it was that annoying to you.

Also wanted to update before May, so here is the next chapter enjoy, hopefully its not too rushed.

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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Harry Potter was not particularly impressed by the Wizarding world, not that he had expected to be however there were a few things that were earning his, mind you grudging, approval.

The amount of land now in his possession however enticed him beyond what he had believed to be possible.

Admittedly the castle was in a state of disrepair, all right extreme disrepair but that was more or less the point as the other castle was more of an over stylized country house that was much younger.

By all accounts the castle was still more defensible than the country house was, still there would need to be a lot of work done. "Search the area," He ordered to the minions he had brought along with him. "We'll need to start work immediately." The surrounding woodlands had become overgrown so that was something that would need to be fixed and of course they'd need to fix the broken down parts of the castle.

Consultation of the records kept by the Gringotts Goblins informed him that the castle had last been inhabited sometime in the earlier portion of the seventeen hundreds before the Potter Family had begun construction on the aforementioned country house. The country house lacked the defensive purpose and had been built more for comfort and style than anything else.

The castle was going to need to be refurnished extensively that much was readily apparent. A good number of the doors looked to have become rotted, and one of the towers didn't look to be so sturdy but it was better than starting from scratch, not that he didn't intend to have a separate tower constructed on a separate piece of land.

Design for the second project would be something that would likely be but off until he determined exactly where he was going to build anyway. It would seem that wizards of past generations had managed to secret away land from non magical kind, the settlement in the capital was just one example of this.

Exactly when the wizards had done all this wasn't something that had been clearly defined but it didn't particularly matter. Diagon Alley for example was only one of several such alleys in London, and in fact the magical sections of the capital held a number of other locales that it would probably be prudent to acquaint himself with sometime in the near future.

For the time being however Lodnon was better to avoid until something could be determined about the miasma. That aura, or more correctly the cause of the aura was a serious potential problem, of course acting aggressively was out of the question given his lack of manpower.

Grounds that were uncontested would be what he focused on for the time being primarily in regards to fortifying what he already had. Future conquests would also need to be considered and for that he would need to expand his manpower pool and for that he would require raw materials.

Harvesting resources from the local surrounding wouldn't be that difficult and the expanse of land certain was fairly abundant in what all it had access to in regards to materials for a pre industrial economy. Stone, iron, gold, wood, about the only thing he was lacking really were materials that required to be cultivated, leather, agricultural products and other things but that could be dealt with at a later date.

In the mean time he'd have his minions begin clearing the area and begin renovating the castle and getting it ready for inhabitation. Harry by and large disliked muggles though more in a condescending way then anything else but he did admit that the non magical humans had their uses.

Animal mentality meant most males he, rather more correctly his minions, apprehended in woodlands would attempt to defy him openly mostly because he was younger then them it was primarily the reason he didn't let them live long.

Teenagers for the most part all seemed to be disrespectful animals in his opinion but they weren't completely unredeemable, cleaning was among the tasks they could be entrusted with at the very least.

Judging by the state of disrepair cleaning staff was likely something that they would indeed require. Additionally it wasn't like the humans were actually needed in the woodland lair so moving them to help here wouldn't hurt. Still it was unfortunate he couldn't head to London and collect some of the 'lost and the damned' they'd at the very least be somewhat useful for menial labor.

Keeping a low profile however was also an issue so for the time being he'd just need to use the 'regular' minions to get the castle ready. The goblins were going to be slow completing the work and Harry didn't have enough of other more capable races at his disposal at present to speed up the process. He had barely a handful of Orks at present but at least they would be of some use now.

Little could be done about the numbers of minions at present it was something that really only time would fix. Clearly the overgrown trees, and building logging camps would also take time as would the construction of the forges and other workshops that would be required for the castle future's needs.

Many concerns filtered into Harry's plans for the futures not amongst those plans was impressing people with glory and splendor. The castle was a fortification so there was little need to concern himself with bright colors and pretty paintings, all Harry needed for this place was to supply him with materials for his future war machine.

Now was a time to prepare, and to prepare he would among other things have to gather more detailed information on the Wizarding world, in addition to continuing his research into magic.

Harry stared up at the central tower as he stood before the front gate of the castle, there was a lot of work that needed to be done. Time however was something that he could afford, there was no rush it would take time for everything to be prepared after all rushing forward would solve nothing.

Of the many things that needed to be addressed was the Wizarding world, the dark cloak wizards the Death Eaters, stupid name really, were openly rebelling though so far at least as far as he could determine weren't kept in line by the ministry because they kept their movements low key. It wasn't just them though, the traditional conservative elements had a firm stranglehold on power it was something he'd have to look into.

Purebloods, the idea was appealing to him as any other, but for now he'd simply have to deal with them. For the time being it was just something that he would have tolerate and in regards to that it meant he would have to put up with going through the letters he had received after the incident in Diagon Alley. In the meantime this wasn't the only place he needed to look into.

While the Dursleys were more tolerable these days Harry would be pleased to move out of Number Four Privet Drive at the first available opportunity. Doing that meant moving into one of the homes he had inherited.

Pureblood families were apparently all quite closely inter tangled through marriage and apparently the last few generations had seen several die out, leaving him as the successor to those lines.

It wasn't something he was all that concerned with assets were assets after all, and the only relatives he had ever known were the Dursleys and frankly with relatives like that he wasn't particularly interested in any others.

Harry scowled it was true that there was little he could do in regards the restoration progress, but it didn't mean he had to like it. That being said he did have other things that needed to be addressed in the mean time.

Until he had the resources and the manpower necessary it was mandatory he work along side the wizards. In order to work alongside them he needed to get a better grasp on their politics and inner workings and that was what he was preparing to do.

Determining what needed to be done would exactly would however require him to come back later and examine things. Come back and study this place in depth, surveying and such.

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The Wizarding World or at least the British portion of it was governed, if it could be called that given the facts as Harry interpreted them, was at best criminally incompetent when it came to dealing with the death eaters.

Overall the so called ministry seemed to be made up of the Parliament like Wizengamot, which appeared to be comprised of hereditary seats, and then the varying bureaucratic departments.

At the present Harry was none too inclined to waste his effort bothering himself with the internal issues that existed though he did take note of them. It wouldn't do after all to be caught unaware of such things.

Blood purity frankly sounded like a load of nonsense to him but that was what they seemed to believe in. Unfortunately those who subscribed to theory were the very same conservatives people who were in control of the government and no doubt they had money as well.

While he had no proof Harry at the very least expected that from this information there were sympathizers in the government for the dark cloak, and masked wizards. It was merely a suspicion but he at the same time had no reason to believe otherwise.

Confident as he may have been in his own abilities in regards to magical combat he did still recognize that he had weaknesses in the form of numbers, something he frequently reminded himself of. Going up against an entire government was not something he had the resources to do at the moment.

Dark Families, Light Families, Grey Families, keh it was all just politics by an other name it was something he recognized. Still the so called purebloods no matter what their professed alignment was they all were apart it seemed of the institutionalized behavior all of them seemed to be 'conservatives' to varying degrees.

This was not necessarily a bad thing in fact it might very well be useful in his task to destroy non magical infrastructure and technology.

Expectations that's what the wizards had for him, they were foolish to expect anything out of him. Making assumptions was foolhardy at the best of times and as history taught could be fatal at the worst.

He himself had been worried that, this had been fore he had chanced upon the Wizarding world, that he would eventually run into wizards with minions and powers superior to his own.

Fortunately the Wizarding world didn't appear to have anyone who met that criteria but it was best to still be cautious. The goblins were just one unexpected turn of events he could mention, the intelligence they had demonstrated had surprised him. It was not something he had expected, because he had been going by what he already had experienced.

Going on the assumption that what he knew already would always apply was foolish it was something he should have known better, things could change all to quickly. This was amongst the reasons he wanted to gather more information on the Wizarding world and it's no doubt various inhabitants.

Harry considered the most expedient way to gather this information was by direct interaction with the people who resided in the magical society. This was of course why he was going through what he personally considered the bother of meeting these people.

Information was what he was after and it made little difference which political faction he met with merely that he gathered the information. The young wizard had elected to go ahead and begin dressing in classical Wizarding sheik.

Judging by what he observed in his, admittedly, short time he would proceed and modify the robes to his liking. In any case such a matter was fairly trivial either way Harry was not particularly concerned with the issue.

Keeping his metaphorical cards close to his chest was also something important, after all he didn't want the wizards to yet know what he was fully capable of. Capabilities which that Harry was admittedly still refining, the longer he could keep them in the dark about among other things the minions and his plan to use a magical pulse to destroy muggle society the less likely they would be able to successfully meddle, admittedly if the wizards could be swayed to assisting him that would be beneficial.

"Look Mr. Potter," Began the head of magical law enforcement, and unsurprising as he would decide later, a pureblood, by the name of Amelia Bones neutrally. "The event in the Alley was a law enforcement matter,"  
Managing to not sneer at the complaint to more effort than Harry wanted to admit, he did after all like to think he had better control over his faculties. "And they did a truly splendid job I must have counted, oh wait I didn't see any of your vaunted troops any where remotely near the alley,"  
"Now see here," Her aide de camp spluttered indignantly. The air chilled instantly as the immaculately dressed wizard, in his very nice silk robes, recoiled in fear and surprise at the glare he received from not only Harry but also his boss.

"Oh do you shut up Jenkins," Madam Bones muttered with a grimace. "You are correct the response of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was lax, the raid on Diagon was never expected to be possible with the Dark Lord out of the picture,"

Potter's last scion didn't bother restraining the smirk, "Indeed the main reason such an attack was successful I would hazard to speculate you underestimated their capacities a costly mistake." Harry propped his chin up, "Still the fact they were able to carry this out does make one wonder what is going on," all of this was merely political banter, Harry was not particularly interested in convincing the Law Enforcement to become more competent, "and what else the Death Eaters are capable of? What is next on their agenda an attack against a school that everyone seems convinced is nigh impregnable?" Jenkins paled at the remark.

"Quite impossible there is now way they could attack the school," The aide de camp protested fervently, more as if to convince himself that such an event was impossible. It would seem the attack on Diagon Alley had had psychological repercussions. "They couldn't possibly be able to get passed the wards,"

Raising an eyebrow in disbelief Harry sighed, this was the kind of think that got people killed, not that he particularly cared so long as he wasn't in danger. Still the belief that there was no danger was exactly what had allowed the wizards to be attacked in the first place, that or serious corruption issues.

Still it made little difference to him, whether corruption, or just plain incompetence either one was something he could exploit.

As it stood people had a flawed interpretation of him, a hero, no it wouldn't do for them to get any further entrenched into that foolish idea, hence his nudging the Wizarding law enforcement along. Even if they were as truly negligent as they would still have to do something if he attempted to motivate them lest they be on the receiving end of a public backlash.

Time was something he needed, at present his manpower pool was, as he was frequent to remind himself, limited additionally he needed that time not simply to build up the number of minions under his command but also to expand his own powers, in addition to building the devices to generate the magical pulses along with a host of other preparations that needed to be made.

"One thing Mr. Potter about the magic you used in Diagon Alley?" Madame Bones stated as the two stood up, and Harry prepared to depart.

The young wizard smirked, "My power is my own, just as clan is comprised of flesh, blood and bone, it is something which only is as such known," Energy curled around him and he vanished, teleporting away.

Let them be curious after all what they had seen so far was only a sliver of the powers he would one day wield, let them be awed.

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Harry was not by any means pleased with the present state of things. The wizard's incompetence in regards to dealing with the Death Eaters, especially given that group's competence was simply inexcusable.

What little he had bothered to look into in regards to them was that the so called Death Eaters mainly attacked 'muggles', no doubt the purpose of the attack on the school some weeks earlier, and they would occasionally target other wizards mainly muggleborns, though mainly it was arson in regards to attacks on other wizards.

All of those things didn't really concern him, given the fact he was fairly certain his magic, which was much more suited for fighting, gave him the edge.

His inheritance on the other hand was something, which greatly concerned him refurnishing Potter castle would take time as would building the necessary buildings for producing equipment and such.

Of course with this dramatic increase in resources it would allow him to construct those vital resources that much sooner, the down side was this much sooner meant he still would have to wait for his pool of minions to grow.

Good or bad things had changed and that meant plans would need to change, and hence his plan to redirect his attention to acquiring more ork minions.

They would be more useful in open area construction and manual labor than the goblins he had, who were really only good for digging when it came to manual labor. Admittedly digging could be useful for certain things. Indeed there were several mines he intended to have the goblins exploit with their capacity for excavation.

Alchemy and clockwork building were subjects he had only tinkered with at present the fact was Homunculi and machines which worked with magic as well as golems was not something he had done much research in at present.

That would change eventually for all those fields obviously but at the moment those kind of workers and assistance were not available to him. This sudden influx of resources had not been something he'd accounted for in his plans.

In those plans he had expected by the time he had the resources to build a fortress he'd already have completed enough research to build such constructs to assist in the construction. Potter castle was already built, with magic he could modify the structure to his liking as his ancestors had done before him. Or to be more precise to modify the castle to better fit his plans once he'd brought the castle up to par.

Building the barrier, whether it would be a wall, moat or whatever it would be that he finally decided as the boundary would take time as well. Modifying and updating the wards would also take time, as would preparing the defenses. Setting up the workshops and getting the minions to run them would also take more of the same.

All in all there was a lot of work to be done, and at the moment it did seem that there was time to do it. Moving the minions he had at present had been somewhat of a menial task, though.

Establishing places for the spiders was easy enough, captured normals were the same, and so on and so forth for the goblins and for the minions he had in smaller numbers. By and large his forces were as previously touch on, goblins and spiders. The handfuls of others were much smaller in number than either of those two groups of minions.

Orcs were brutish creatures, strong and durable but simple, and up until this point he hadn't focused on summoning them. They were however capable in some crafts, such as lumber, or smithing or even putting siege weapons together or mining, once construction of the mine was done to accomadate their size.

Construction was something they would be good for building things that needed to be built was where their strength would be useful. Of course they'd be stretched thin until he could increase their numbers. As it stood he simply didn't have enough for all the projects he had planned.

That meant he would have to wait before starting some of those infrastructure projects simply because of lack of manpower both in regards to construction as well as on the matter of minions to run the projects.

In the immediate timeframe of things logging camps were a priority simply because he needed to clear the over grown land. It had to be cleared before anything could be done with those areas.

However with the castle in the state of disrepair that it was in that harvested lumber could be put to good use, and of course they would need that wood for other building projects. Still building lumber camps was something he knew already and had planned for on his last visit, and the camps could be built fairly expediently, hence why the first camps were already up and running and felling trees.

The fact was he still needed to decide what was the next course of action in regards to building. Already the goblins were busy tunneling into the mountains through the existing mines looking to reopen the quarries soon.

Wizards had hidden a great deal of land from muggles over the years, but in the process of doing so had hidden it from other wizards and over the years that land had been lost to history. Putting that land back to good use would take time, obviously, as well as more minions if he was to do such expediently.

Establishing brick makers and other clay product producers would potentially have to wait after all stone, metal, and wood were all much better foci for magical energy. Unfortunately establishing an iron works would also take far more time than other projects but it would be needed to make defenses and equipment.

This place has seen less and less use not because it was no longer viable but merely due to the changing trends of society. Harry had no interest in these trends, this castle would serve his needs.

Advanced defenses for this castle, and other places, would require iron works to be built as well as magic users to create the defenses with the iron vessels. That would involve rune carving and enchanting both of which would require investments time.

His existing magic strictly speaking had refined applications in combat and preparations for defense and supplementation. Wizards however had been at peace that their application reflected it. Household charms and such though undoubtedly their potions and wards were something he could use in his plans.

Still the wizards did pose a potential challenge at present, just due to their numbers and development of their magic. The law enforcement branch was incompetent, at least against those who were fighting back, the department head however was to curious for his tastes.

She was unfortunately not the only one, the wizards were not used to such demonstrations of ability in magic in this day and age. No doubt there would be more questions as the 'paralysis' caused by awe began to fade.

Harry leaned on the metal staff he carried in thought. At them moment he wasn't fully acquainted with this society in addition he still had his own research into magic to do. All of his research was meant for a specific goal.

The end of muggle society was that goal, to do that he had to do more research and make further preparations. He needed to build objects which would release large enough magical pulses to cripple technology, and then have armies of minions finish the job of destroying the civilization, but all that would take time. Just like everything else, time was needed to make preparations to get things ready.

Harry walked towards his own hall, there were preparations to be made for the short term to facilitate long term plans. Construction required raw materials, which meant he needed to establish raw material harvesting and production. So he would have the materials to build bigger structures, which he would need for his plans.

Wood would be sufficient for basic buildings other than that he'd still had yet to decide which to start on in regards to more 'advanced' infrastructure buildings because of his at present limited number of capable minions.

The coming school year also raised issues among those was the fact he would need to acquaint himself with the existing wizard society. Still the 'Death Eaters' seemed little different than the skin heads or the like in the muggle world.

Law enforcement was lax at best though or at worst the government was corrupt or sympathetic to them. The first two were opportunities to exploit for his agenda. Though the Death Eater's attack against Diagon Alley did slightly concern him as it meant he would need to be more prepared to fight. In his original plans he hadn't expected to face another magic user in a fight for along time.

In fact his own estimations were that by the time he found another magic user, not just some one with the capacity but a person who was actively able to focus magic naturally and use it in a fight, he'd have already expanded his own repertoire of spells and abilities significantly.

Contact with the Wizards had been an unforeseen turn of events and had the rather bothersome effect of disrupting his plans. The fact was he hadn't expected such a society or any society as his lack of contact with any other magic users had caused him to suspect they were even more rare than they apparently were.

When school started he'd be surrounded by young wizards which would be both a potential benefit and a probable nuisance. His minions would be able to handle construction in his absence while he was away, thus work on restoring the castle would continue.

Right now the capacity of the wizards was not fully quantified, yes they could use magic but they seemed limited in regards to combat, however this was not confirmed.

Also there were a great deal of them, enough that they could be a serious impediment to his plans unless he took precautions.

None of them knew of his plans, which of course would be the way he would prefer it to stay for the time being. On the other hand they seemed to dismiss the threat posed by muggle, and this coupled with their incompetence could be a problem.

After the magic pulses destroyed the majority of non magical technology Harry would have little if any complaints against setting the wizards loose, if a couple off the hardline purebloods got killed 'muggle hunting' so what.

However that was a long way off so for the time being he couldn't really afford to have the Death Eaters, or anyone else of like mind running around potentially endangering his plans with their idiocy. Still there were other concerns regarding the wizards. These so called purebloods as well as others.

This castle and the lands it sat upon were his, passed through generations of his father's family. An old and powerful pureblood family, and there in was the problem.

There were several old and powerful pureblood families in England alone, and many more had gone silent over the years. Many such plots of land, like his own, had been hidden away by wizards through the ages and who was to say that some threat or another might not have infested these lands.

Or possibly worse that one of these other old, distinguished pureblood families had a castle not unlike his own and that it was already prepared for war. There was no guarantee that all the castles which belonged to wizards had been abandoned and that could be a real problem.

Especially if such castles were to be used in the same manner that he intended to use the castle he was residing in at this very moment.

He had a little less than a month left until he started attending the wizard school that was apparently located somewhere in northern Scotland. There was a lot of work and planning in regards to the castle that needed to be done before he departed for there, as well as research to be done and spells to be practiced.

Elsewhere in England there was another plotter who was dealing with his own headaches concerning plans and the complications they faced. Namely keeping the purebloods in line or more appropriately away from the wizarding world's savior.

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As expected, and to his annoyance the wizards were curious. Dumbledore, who was considered one of their more influential people, had even attempted to open some kind of dialogue on the matter.

Harry had declined citing he was occupied with other matters which required the whole of his attention. By all accounts it was true, as well as being the same response he had sent to others who inquired as to his time. For at the moment he was all to occupied with matters of blood, of his inheritance, and of his own 'legacy'.

Castle repair was a time consuming process that much was also true. Luckily the extent of repairs was not as great as it could have been. Harry had even established and carried out a summoning of new minions here. As soon as such was done he had had the castle secured.

Days had passed since then, and the time to head to the wizards' school was drawing ever nearer. Harry had made his preparations for the trip already, and now all that remained was to use the time which did remain.

Research and calculations could be done and orders pushed along to minions and that was what would be done. By the time he returned for Christmas break the paths would be clear and the repairs to the castle be done.

Once such basic tasks were finished more advanced ones could be under taken here. Seven years, seven years at the wizard school awaited him even should their magic only be useful in the most obscure subjects of theirs it would be worth it. Time enough was seven years to make the preparations needed.

Enough time to bring the castle to the level he desired it to be at for his plans. When those seven years had passed he still wouldn't have enough minions, not yet but it would be nearing what he desired.

For now however seven years was a long way off. It was enough time for a problem to creep up, or some new complication to manifest and cause him to need to again alter his plans. His life was about to change, this wasn't a normal school and he'd probably have to play catch up or maybe he wouldn't, that would all depend on how things played out at the place in question.

Unlike in muggle schools he had attended up until this point he had not had the time before hand to prepare extensively on subjects, yet at the same time he was already well versed in controlling his birthright. A control that reached levels it seemed most adults in the wizarding world never achieved.

The constant work and practice made him powerful and he had dedicated a great deal of his time to studying the fores of the arcane. So while he wasn't totally familiar with the subjects that would be studied anything, which involved the direct application of magic, he would have little problem figuring out. This was proven by his ability to replicate the wizard's memory altering spell to at least usable levels.

On the other hand more book based academic subjects would require more time dedicated to simply studying the subjects in question. This was sure to be an annoyance as it would cut down on his personal research time.

As annoying as such was sure to be from appearances given by the acquired textbooks such subjects would be limited to 'History of Magic' and 'Potions' as far as he figured and the latter might prove useful.

In theory charms, Defense against the Dark Arts, and transfiguration would all be practical applications of magic. At least in theory given what he had seen defense was probably about as useless as could be.

Not that he expected he'd need the lessons but there was a small chance the wizards would have useful spells given the memory altering one. Of course that was not likely to be something to be taught to school children.

Harry scowled at the distant skyline, if not for a mix of paranoia that he would miss something potentially important, as unlikely as such was, he'd have considered mail wards.

Wizards were both extremely annoying and extremely nosy still they had their potential uses. At the present they were however really irritating him by sticking their noses into his affairs.

Establishing his own wards was something he could only do in a limited capacity with the castle at present but the castle's existing concealment and defensive magiks were sufficient to prevent any uninvited visitors.

Add to that there were extensive, Harry was not aware of this yet, anti apparition wars surrounding not simply the castle but the lands around it, and that he hadn't connected the castle to the floo network his domain was very isolated from the majority of wizarding society given the distance and lack of knowledge.

Such was as Harry preferred it, the isolation would permit him at least some degree of peace and freedom to carry out his work without interruptions.

Most people didn't have an idea onto the exact holdings of the old pureblood families, and this was an advantage he intended to use to his fullest benefit. Once the preparations were complete and he could add his own concealment wards the castle would be that much harder to reach whether for muggles or wizards.

Though in regards to the prior if it did ever come to a shooting war they had weapons which would be a problem. As the weapons could be simply fired to impact in the general area of whatever they wanted to hit.

Of course the chances of that occurring were quite low, and he'd probably kill any one before they got the chance to share the information concerning the general area of the castle.

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: Basically plot building the next chapter should hopefully be more interesting to you readers. Also I'm probably going to cut back future chapters to 5k words for convenience, for another site, even so updates will remain at about the same frequency.

The good news since I'm focusing on this story that update rate will probably be at least once a month possibly more depending.

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	5. Chapter 5 On Magic

Chapter 5

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: If you look at it the prophecy was completed at Voldemort's defeat at Godric's Hollow in the eighties, does that mean he can't come back, no.

As to what I'm going to do with other magical governments don't know yet, as far as this story goes I know that I want to have the more distant, America, China, Japan, India, and the like, governments, but not quite sure what to do with them.

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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Harry was by no means pleased with things as they were at present, but there was very little that could be done with his current resources. As usual though his opinion of the world remained as contempt filled for it as always.

Summer's end was drawing ever nearer, and the fact couldn't be disputed, and he was slightly disappointed by this.

Wizards in regards to offensive abilities seemed be inferior, though in other fields they seemed comparable in most respects. To contrast to his teleportation they had apparation, which seemed to accomplish the same purpose of his skill. Their wards were able to conceal things, Diagon Alley came to mind, though in this they seemed to be further ahead it was to be expected.

In summary their society's long peace meant as time had passed things with civil application like potions and household charms had been developed. Their peace meant they had allowed the non magical world to grow in strength; how foolish of them.

Harry's magic had been dedicated to more violent applications, namely due to his experiences and where he drew his inspirations.

Magic was retained at varying degrees by different materials. There was also the matter of the fact at different frequencies of magic substances capacity to retain magic varied as his research indicated.

Wizard castles were constructed of magic retaining stone, which made them resistant to siege by all but the strongest forms of magical siege. Additionally the location of wizard castles were typically closely guarded secretes within wizard families.

Stone and natural earth were amongst the best materials for magical defenses and wizarding castles exploited this fact fully, and Harry had planned to do the same for his own fortresses, when he built them.

Most the techniques to counter castles innate defenses had been lost over time. Such was part of the reason Hogwarts had never been successfully assaulted after the thirteenth century.

Potter castle had been attacked during the last parts of the Renaissance. According to internal records Octavius Potter had a rainstorm to trap the invading army and then turned their own siege magic against them.  
Most of the army had been buried alive under meters of mud, which rather sounded like a spell he was devising. It was part of the reason castle assaults were unpopular, that and with the establishment of the, idiotic in Harry's opinion, of the Statute of Secrecy wizards had a hard time getting the manpower to attack a castle.

Harry of course intended to, as part of the renovations, add his own improvements to the defenses to replace those that no longer existed.

The bothersome letters still hadn't stopped, which really was beginning to irk him beyond his usual annoyance. Being the defeater of the dark lord meant he was going to get a lot of mail now that he had 'returned' to the wizarding world.

His actions in Diagon Alley were also something which had attracted attention despite their creative use of magic, specifically memory deletion spells wizards were no longer used to combat application of magic.

Harry recognized that fact now. Such of course meant it would probably be wise to avoid showing his powers off unnecessarily. Most of the spells in his arsenal he had already mastered and as such even with his restraints in place could use a number of time without undue stress on his reserves.

Of course fighting with an impediment like keeping his restraints in place was not exactly wise and Harry recognized that fact, and had no intention of doing such.

Further research and practice would come in time of course still for the time being what he had was more the sufficient to deal with an enemy, wizard politics like muggle politics meant little to him.

Admittedly the matter of politics here were simpler to a degree, of course as with such things there were inner complexities too. Harry himself believed in the innate superiority of power, magic in particular above all. Of course while he believed this he also did not discount the threat of other types of powers.

The very first telepath Harry had encountered, drug addled idiot that the man had been, he, Harry, had hunted and down and murdered because of the potential threat the man posed.

Whether they would admit it or not, whether they wanted to or not the fact was wizards had separated themselves from muggles for reasons of self preservation. Had they struck out sooner they might have been able to dominated the non magical world.

Unfortunately that time had passed numbers and now technology those were muggles' advantages.

At least one of these advantages Harry could negate, without technology modern muggles would be ineffective at resisting his minions once their ranks had grown to the number he desired.

Harry looked up towards the sky, a barn owl was carrying a letter which obviously meant it was from a wizard, or rather such a nuisance. Still this was where he was going to live until he could put his plan into action, which would be a long ways off.

It still annoyed him though, the daily letters. Most had been simple fan idiocy, but there were also more politically motivated letters. Harry wasn't sure which of the two types this one this would be.

The young magic user watched as the owl swept down landing on a rampart nearest Harry. A scowl crossed his features the letter was from Hogwarts.

Given that it was closed to until the start of term he hoped it wasn't some kind of placement testing for classes or something that would require him to go shopping again.

The letter was from the deputy headmistress McGonnagal. His frown deepened an inquiry regarding the events in Diagon Alley.

What a bunch of stupid nosey people. He had already refused to answer questions concerning his studies did they think he'd answer just because they were inquiring for 'another reason'. Still he'd need to at least meet the witch, and that was what annoyed him.

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Harry's eye gave an irritable twitch, this stupid meeting was cutting into his research time, a very important matter for him. It was, this distraction, something that really annoyed him.

Still he had expected wizards to be of comparable capacity to himself. Cannon fodder like the aurors and 'death eaters' could possibly be excused for having subpar powers, but the wizards just let the Death Eaters walk all over them, which demolished that theory rather soundly.

Clearly not all wizars were as spineless, Hagrid made that clear enough even if it seemed an isolated demonstration.

Harry was born as the 'Dark Lord's equal' after all. Being as flashy as he had been couldn't have been helped his grip on bolts of psionic energy was nowhere near his capacity with fire.

Fire had been the element he had started earliest on, the one he had the most experience working with and controlling. Most of his magic was geared towards fighting or survival, a stark contrast to most wizard's repertoires. He was currently bogged down by research which meant research into none survival spells wasn't likely to happen even in this century.

Meeting the deputy headmistress didn't really concern him, school teachers didn't impress him in the slightest.

Dressed in dark red baggy pants and a shirt, with the usual too many belts, it was striking but not as much as some of outfits. He didn't stand out as much as he would have had he decided to wear his full black ensemble complete with his long and heavy leather jacket in the middle of summer.

Oc course the white gloves and the multiple belts did cause some people to notice but muggles didn't tend to comment on cloths, rather adults didn't see, the simply assumed it was some fad or another, it worked well enough for wizards.

It to was a world he had come to ponder. They were at least of a sizable population yet from what he ad seen they were weak, to caught up in the past. Why were they weaker than him, was it perhaps their wands or perhaps something less tangible willpower perhaps.

Belief, focus, and willpower were amongst that which shipped things in magic. Yet magic was not the only power of which was of a strange nature, and thus he was concerned.

"Mr. Potter," Inquired a stern voice.

He nodded, "Professor McGoangal," Both magic users survyed each other with a critical eye.

His hair was cut short the opposite of the roguish look that James Potter had favored, and unlike his mother's his green eyes only heat was the trace of aetherial power, which flowed enhancing his perception of the things around him.

The fact of the matter was while precise elemental manipulation wasn't something he had started practice on yet he still was capable of. He could unleash a fire ball that could consume a twenty five meter radius at the drop of a hat. Raw manipulation like that was something he would fairly easily nowadays, and the effects of channeling such large sums of energy showed.

After a moment the professor looked around the setting. "Perhaps we should discuss matters in a more," She paused for a minute.

"Secure," Harry suggested, he still wasn't fully comfortable tempting whatever was responsible for the miasma hanging over the capital hence why they meeting up here in Surrey. "By all means, this place was only meant to be a place to meet," He commented standing. The young wizard tossed the transfiguration professor a polished stone statue of a dog, "The object is what you refer to as a portkey, leading to the Potter Manor in London,"

Like it or not London was still the best place for having a meeting seeing as he wasn't revealing the castle and wasn't leaving the country. Due to this it left the London home as a viable secure choice for a discussion as far as he was concerned.

As it stood London was the capital of the United Kingdom for both 'worlds' as such as times went on it became fashionable as well as somewhat prudent to have a house there.

Naturally all the prominent purebloods through the ages had attempted to one up one another.

This of course led to some rather impressive homes, well at least up until the Blitz during the second world war. Following the destruction wrought by the bombing purebloods had decided to relocate their primary residences to less likely to be bombed locales, unfortunately for the Potter's the house in Godric's Hollow had been destroyed a decade previously.

Potter Manor in London was for the most part intact after the Blitz. Still it, upon inheriting had been found to be suffering effects of its disuse.

Harry didn't particularly care though cleaning and the minor repairs were not something that would take all that much effort to complete.

His feet treaded softly on the tiled floor. McGonagal arrived in the main entry hall a minute later. "This wasn't exactly what I had in mind," She remarked, "Is the main study still the same,"  
Harry suppressed a scowl, "To my knowledge yes," He commented from the second level. Resolving this matter was something he wanted over and done with, the young wizard took a seat behind the desk.

"Mr. Potter who exactly instructed you in magic," Inquired the head of the house of the lion taking the offered seat.

His face remained impassive, "Who?" He inquired, "no one does it surprise you that I someone denied my birthright for so long is still capable of so much," The frigid tone seemed alien coming from such a young body, "I received no instruction from anyone, because after all I've been denied the world I was born in," He stated.

McGonagal stared, that was theoretically no it was impossible.

The young wizard patted a well worn copy of a fantasy novel by JRR Tolkien, a number of the pages were dogeared, and there was still much to learn.

The transfiguration professor paused staring the room had changed since it had left the ownership of James Potter, during whose tenure it had remained much as it had during his father's and his father's father's reign. A large section of one of the bookshelves had been cleared and beside it as an old fashioned crate containing books.

Harry hadn't really had much time to settle in, but he had taken the opportunity to move certain resources into this house, since he would be using it for a public front.

Even so he had begun to reorganize the study to better accommodate him, since of the rooms when he was here this was one of the rooms he would be using. He needed to learn more about the wizarding world and this house made an ideal meeting ground for conducting such activities.

A number of books and other items had been removed and replaced with Harry's own equipment. The books in the crate weren't for his reading at all, in fact they were penned by him to hold his findings.

"Mr. Potter what precisely are in those books," Inquired the Professor,

A frown crossed his features for a moment, lying served no purpose besides it hardly mattered, the books were incomplete on their respective subjects anyway. "My research, studies in the arcane."

"Your studies," She paused, "Mr Potter I will ask again who taught you magic, it is extremely irresponsible to,"  
He snorted, "I told you I've never had an instructor," The wizard remarked, "Do you know what I've discovered, its that my research and the world's development diverged, but if you want to talk about irresponsible I think you are, your weak and incapable of standing against your enemies," It wasn't a weakness that he possessed not any longer, not now that he had magic at his command and in time he would command armies of creatures and people. "My research isn't yet complete and won't be for years, but if any one is irresponsible its you people."

That much was true he had dozens of projects that were only in the initial phases, and worse was the he was behind schedule due to recent events, which would need to change he needed to have more time to research.

Harry didn't know it but Hogwarts would answer those needs in a surprising way, he would get the time he needed to research.

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: Shorter than I intended, Train scene next chapter then, and meeting wizards, oh so much work to do.

Any way my beta seems to have taken a vacation so yeah its rather short, but when she gets back I'll hand it off to her and let her fix my mistakes.

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	6. Chapter 6 King's Cross

Chapter 6

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes:

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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Harry tapped his fingers impatiently, oh perhaps he was being paranoid but it wasn't like he was bringing an entire army to the train station with him. The younger wizard however was still annoyed, research wise he was behind schedule due to the whole wizarding world incident.

A large chunk of his time had gotten eaten up by having to familiarize himself with the society, which he admitted grudgingly was an acceptable waste of time. Dealing with the wizards themselves was as slightly, yeah right, more annoying task.

He carefully swept the packed train station, after all he was early so most of the morning commuters hadn't departed yet.

"Can I help you sonny?" inquired an elderly train worker, probably a few years away from retiring given the wrinkles and white hair.

The wizard schooled his features, "Ah no sir just looking for an associate of mine, meeting ¾ past platform 9, not the best idea yes?" He remarked, and it was true he was waiting for an associate, who was reconnoitering the area.

"Seems overly complicated if you ask me," Agreed the train worker, "If you need some help just head over to that desk, and ask for Andrew he's my replacement for this shift, take care kid,"

Harry nodded, "Aye much obliged," Harry responded his eyes narrowed after the man headed off. The magic he had gathered returning to his reserves. 'this is overly complicated riding a train that departs kings cross this is absurd.'

"I could kill him if you like?" Remarked a voice in his ear, Harry shook his head and stormed past a gaggle of newly arrived red heads who were talking to damn loud.

He frowned, "Don't draw attention," He muttered to the voice, 'I really should have come earlier than this ,' He though irritably shifting his trunk from hand to hand. It had a weight reduction charm on it, as well as wheels, which was apparently a recent addition to wizard trunks so it wasn't that difficult to move.

The young wizard pushed through the barrier nearly colliding with another magic user. His eyes narrowed the platform wasn't exceptionally crowded, yet, seeing as he was early, not as early as he had wanted to be though.

The witch stood up angrily, Harry flexed his gloved hands in exasperation, and in a subtle gesture to his invisible 'ally' to back down.

"Watch where you are going," She snapped.

Oh there was no way he was going to take this, "if you weren't standing in front of the door you idiot it wouldn't have happened." Despite some maturity Harry was still eleven and the fact he could throw fireballs amongst other things didn't mean he was above petty arguments. "Don't blame me for your own faults,"  
The witch scowled, she couldn't have been much older than him, hopefully he wouldn't see here at the damned, Harry's annoyance talking, school any more than necessary, which would probably be asking to much as it was. "Why you," She spluttered at him.

Harry sighed latched onto her arm and stepped sideways, pulling her with him as anoth group rushed through the barrier, this time at breakneck speeds.  
Katie Bell, soon to be starting her second year as a Griffindor, blinked as he let go of her arm, and cast a disparaging glare at the people who had just come through the barrier.

"Just shut up," Harry growled, "and walk," He stepped past her and walked towards the train, invisible ally in tow.

Katie gritted her teeth, "Hey!" She shouted indignantly, before blushing at shouting in public, as he kept walking.

Hopefully he could find a compartment, stow his trunk and get a feel of the platform before final boarding call was sounded after all chances were he would be seeing a lot of this place over the next few years. He already had a team of goblins scouring the area as well.

Katie trailed after, though she was not quite sure why she was following the potent young wizard, who had just seen the scarlet colored train and given a rather derisive snort. The dark haired preteen wrenched open the door to an unclaimed compartment and stepped inside, the Griffindor girl following after, having slightly more trouble dragging her trunk.

"Having trouble?" He commented more than questioned eyeing the trunk.

She glared defiantly back at least for a moment after dragging the trunk inside the compartment, "You're…"

He stepped forward in an instant covering her mouth, as the door closed behind the two, seemingly on its own, though Katie didn't notice. "Don't shout it for all to hear," The wizard snapped irritably, "and yes, I am," After another second he stepped back, and lowered his hand from her mouth, "Well then I've something to do before the train departs," He stepped to the side and then forward and opened the door leaving Katie to stow her trunk.

The Platform was beginning to get crowded with people, both students and their families, and Harry frowned considering turning back for a moment and letting his minions handle the matter of scouting.

As it stood the Death Eaters were really not used to getting beaten or even having people fight back against them, and the fact that the Diagon Alley incident had been a rather public thrashing they didn't want the public to get the wrong notion in their head.

Without the Dark Lord leadership of the group had splintered with certain members of the inner circle leading groups for their own goals, though remaining nominally the same group for the most part.

The fact was the 'country club's' ego was hurting, by and large. Some of the members still recognized that acting rashly would just complicate matters, other just simply were too blinded by their pride to care. It was this latter group who decided to try and pick a fight at King's Cross station.

A beam of light hurtled through the air as the Death Eater's entered the train only for a moment later for that lead Death Eater to slump in a slightly smoking heap to the ground.

Harry scowled, "Do these idiots have a death wish," He complained as the screaming began to start, his invisible companion said nothing. "Kill them, I'll be back,"

The wizard stepped back and teleported back to his compartment, shocking Katie, who he paid no mind to. He shrugged off his restraints savoring the arcane energy as it surged through and around him.

As a baby he had been the 'Dark Lord's' Equal. The very same dark lord who had researched all manner of obscure magics and had reigned terror for two decades.

Harry, well Harry generally preferred liberal application of force, very liberal, and waiting for the enemy to come to him didn't suit his tastes, so he would take the fight to them.

A dozen darts of magic slammed into a group of three. Magic 'arrows' would be overkill, and a waste of energy not that that quite mattered for him, in this close of quarters, and were slower in the rate he could unleash them when compared to the darts.

Of course rate of fire came at the price of being, the darts, smaller projectiles, which didn't do as much damage to an area.

"Potter!" roared one of the masked wizards.

Harry ducked low, and energy flew from his palm as he dodged an azure colored spell that had been fired his way. His own attack winged the wizard burning through the man's bicep with a sizzle, had it been a magic arrow it would have taken the arm clean off of the body. Flames leapt from his other hand singing the column the wizard had ducked behind.

The Death Eaters were a threat to him if he wasn't careful, he knew that now, but they were only a threat if they could hit him.

Harry vanished, reappearing and lashing out with a wave of raw kinetic force on the opposite side of the column smacking the Death Eater into it, before vanishing and reappearing at his starting position.

The wizards for the most part, children especially, were either frozen in surprise or beginning to panic. Explosions hit a dust bin near Harry, and the Death Eater wizard paid for his imprecise shot as Harry retaliated with his much more combat oriented magic. Sonic energy, the culmination of the last two weeks of work, ruptured the wizard's ear drums causing blood to run from his ears and eyes to water.

The man dropped to his knees, Harry grimaced and hurled the wizard toward his compatriots with a thought, his magic augmented senses counted a dozen at least but no more than two dozen of the enemy, he could be sure though with so many in the station and all the commotion.

Power coursed through his veins angrily, unrestrained, only his gloves remained, restraining and tempering the terrible arcane power. His wrists burned in pain where the bands tightly gripped down, but he paid it no mind.

The gloves removal was to dangerous, they remained on even in this situation, besides there were some marks he preferred hidden. He lashed out again baleful energy hefting up one of the new Death Eaters and hurling him tremendously hard against the wall of the platform.

This was the 3rd time they had attacked him, and Harry was quite sick of it. Energy bubbled to the surface and he struck.  
His spell repertoire was limited and though he had many ideas, dozens of spells in various states of research, only a few by comparison he had mastered full. If he was going to be attacked like this he would need to expand his collection of spells.

Lashes of flame burned the air. Yes his arsenal was limited that would need to change quickly and he couldn't rely on the guarantee of his own forces as originally he had though would be able to.

Oh yes in this particular instance incident he had them and back up, but there was no assurance it would the same in the future.

Acid ate through clothes and flesh causing the air to be pierced with screams as Harry focused further and deeper into his magic. Harry thrust his palm outwards sending one of the Death Eater's flying.

He paid little mind as another wizard stunned the dazed terrorist as the 'boy who lived' summoned lightning and unleashed it. The energy leapt from his finger tips and arced across three Death Eaters sending them into painful spasms.

The group of goblin minions he had scouting the area had gotten the last group of Death Eaters who were left on the field, it seemed.

Magic receded slowly as Harry regained full control of his mental functions, and then took the time to survey the scene,

"The enemy are vanquished, either dead, wounded, or set to flight," Remarked the tall humanoid who had finally become visible.

Harry's eyes narrowed behind his glasses, "I have asked you to not pop up like that its positively infuriating," He grunted, clamping down on his irritation at the dark elf. "Lets go," The wizard remarked heading back to 'his' compartment, if the Death Eater's were making an attack it would be prudent to open a stable gate and call reinforcements, not that he really had all that much to spare as reinforcements went. He slid the door open angrily, all the while ignoring the various scrambling parents and students, and red cloaked wizards who were now running to and fro.

Katie Bell had apparently thought it prudent to mess with one of his suppressors in his absence, "You didn't leave her like that?" His ally inquired.

Harry ignored the smart ass remark and knelt down undoing the belt thus 'breaking the circuit' as it were.

The door opened, "Excuse me trained mediwizard," announced the man stepping into the compartment, seemingly paying the Dark Elf no more attention that he would any other wizard in this situation, "Did you mover her?"  
"Of course not," Harry growled,

The man apparently didn't notice the irritation, "Good lad, I'll take it from here," The wizard remarked drawing his wand causing the Dark Elf to raise an eyebrow, even as more wizards arrived.

One of the red cloaked wizards, an Auror, stepped forward, "Mr. Potter, Auror Renalds, sire its an honor to meet you sir," the man stammered extending his hand before pulling back after the dusky skinned humanoid tensed up,

A tall dark haired man in, very expensive looking, wizard robes burst in, "You've found her?" He demanded breathlessly pushing his way through the throng of wizards.

"Yes, Lord Bell, but it doesn't look good severe magical exhaustion," The 'mediwizard' babbled on for a few minutes. "I've no idea what kind of curse, never heard of such a thing."  
Harry frowned this definitely was a pain in the ass, and would probably delay the train, which was unacceptable. "enough," He growled, "In this situation you're useless go somewhere where you will be useful," The young wizard hissed stepping forward, "and the same to the rest of

Now see here, Mr. Potter I am a train medical," He went silent as the Dark elf, as silent as he had been, stepped forward dark blue energy glowing from his hand. The Aurors split half taking a step forward the others a step back.

"Come on then lets just step outside then," Renalds remarked, Harry gave the faintest of nods as they left the room and shut the door.

Harry reached up and undid his glove pulling it off. The skin was pale and marred with numerous small scars, and around his wrist and palms were tightly wrapped bandages; not all conversations with potential minions or allies went well but Harry was nothing if not resilient. "Stupid girl," He muttered disparagingly to her unconscious and shivering form.

His still gloved hand moved down and pulled the tee shirt up while he could this with the glove on it wasn't like sapping energy, of which this was the opposite of, and the glove would siphon off some of the energy, and Harry didn't feel like wasting any.

He felt the soft beating of the witch's heart as his place his hand over it energy, pure magic not directly affiliated with an element, flowed from his palm.

The energy flowed from what amounted to one generator's battery to another battery, of much smaller capacity. Years of working on his own reserves, which were of course already large, having been born as 'the dark lord's' equal meant his magical power was quite significant.

Harry Potter stood up wasting a few seconds to pull her shirt back down to its proper place, before he pulled his glove on and turned his back as Katie's eyes fluttered, and stirred as he stepped towards the door. "It is done," He remarked after opening the door, "I'm going to go make sure we leave we leave on time,"  
The wizards nodded dumbly before reentering the compartment. "What do you suppose he did, I've never heard of of anything that could cure magical exhaustion," Commented one of the aurors.

"He's Harry Potter of course," Renalds the Auror remarked to the other wizard.

Lord Bell looked pensive, after confirming his daughter's well being, he spoke up, "well then I do believe I need to have a word with Dumbledore," He announced, 'and see about getting the boy place directly in Gryffindor,' The man thought considering the political benefitsof having the boy who lived and his daughter together.

Harry stepped on to the Platform, and almost immediately wanted to blast something, "You, precisely what is it you think you are doing?" He snapped at one of the wizards already readying a full magical assault of his own.

The man turned, "There Goblins kid,"

Kid, Harry thought, seriously that was getting on his nerves he had yet to see any of these weaklings throw so much as a fire arrow around, show some bleeding respect. "No they are vassals of my house, my vassals," Flames wrapped around his left hand, "and an attack on them is a slight to me," An arrow of flame about three times larger than the usual formed.

While not as common these days the system of vassalage was still legal, and pissing off the kid who can make a meter long bolt of white hot glowing fire probably wasn't the best idea.

Harry scowled much as he want to blast the idiot, and he really wanted to blast him, he admitted it was better to focus on leaving the station on time rather than picking a fight.

Thankfully it seemed that could be accomplished without any lost of 'face'. The wizard scowled after allowing the man to 'apologize', at the behest of the supervising Auror.

Now that that problem had been addressed, he turned to survey the platform. As it stood a few fires had been set during the quick exchange, and apparently there had been a few more Death Eaters than he had originally thought, that could have been dangerous.

Right now however it hardly mattered, especially since a few of the wizard adults had reacted like they actually had spines. Harry shook his head in annoyance, "This train will leave on time," He stated, "The Death Eaters will not be permitted a chance to hit the platform again," With a sweep of his hand flames hissed and died.

The wizards of the 'wizarding world' were generally, especially in large groups, lacking in two things common sense and logic, generally, but they weren't totally stupid. "But what if the Death Eaters attack the train," stammered an older wizard clutching his wand.

"Well," Auror Renalds grumbled loudly, "I think we should listen to mister Potter," Harry's frown deepened at the sudden increase in clamor.

The good news in any case was that the train was undamaged, and the platform likewise seemed fine, nothing that couldn't' be fixed in time for hols. With a scowl Harry turned away from the crowds, something was going on.

Perhaps he was underestimating the Death Eaters it was possible these could simple be probing maneuvers, which would imply they had the numbers that allowed them to waste such forces, attempts to flesh out his abilities or not, who could say with certainty.

Still it was a worry, and a possible one at that. The fact remained his pools of manpower were still and would be for years far too low to fight an open war, even if he did get full Dark Elf support.

The Parents were all continuing to clamor about, but this time they seemed to be congregating; probably metting up with people they knew or rather were friends or acquaintances with.

"Well then," He muttered , "Its not paranoia if they are actually out there and actively moving against you," The wizard remarked, wizarding laws truly were archaic at least from the standpoint of comparing it to the non magical world; of course Harry hated the muggle world.

He of course also despised anything that fettered him in the slightest but that was another matter all together. The young wizard stepped back onto the train at present he had neither the justification or the resources free to be able to place minions at the school. Especially considering that there were the ancient by laws forbidding 'non magical' vassals explicitly except in certain cases.

With the first Harry wasn't quite arrogant as to think he had the power to fight a whole nation of magic users at least not yet, perhaps he could in years to come but not yet, besides the castle was going to be well defended. The second issue was like always the matter of manpower. Beings summoned and their progeny would be loyal but the summoning was taxing to say the least.

Harry sighed stepping into his compartment which was empty for the moment and dropping down on to the seat rubbing the bridge of his nose. The train wasn't late yet, after all it was barely a quarter before eleven.

The wizard world had opportunities, Harry recognized this, and soon he could begin to work on gaining the resources it presented, and then things could move from there.

"Err… hey," Greeted a voice from the doorway as Harry reached for one of his research journals.

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: I'll throw an email at my beta later and hopefully in the coming month my update schedule will be back up and running.

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	7. Chapter 7 The Train Ride I

Chapter 7

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: Train ride part one and Harry is on his way to Hogwarts time to introduce some more students yes indeed.

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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Harry snapped the book shut, "are you going to come in, the train has already begun boarding other people, or do you want a repeat of this morning." He growled.

Katie Bell blushed and stupidly stepped into the compartment, while Harry had addressed his immediate goal of having the train leaving the station on time, Katie's father, who sat on the Hogwart's board of governors, was having a talk with his daughter.

The young wizard, Harry, had caused a stir, which of course was in no small part effected by his status as the 'boy who lived'. Apparently he, Lord Bell, was going to try and pull a few strings to forgo the sorting and have Harry placed directly in Gryfindor. Something of course Dumbledore would agree with for his own reasons.

As far as bravery went Harry could be brave, he however didn't see the point in rushing off like an idiot to help other idiots. In the event he did something 'brave' it would only because, if and only if the situation benefitted him. This was the condition for him doing something that involved braving the dangers.

Loyalty was with Harry considering well that he didn't friends realistically meant very little, he did however take his words very seriously, to much fantasy literature, if he promised something he'd uphold it, but friendship in the conventional sense not really applicable.

Ambition, yes Harry had ambition and he was plenty intelligent as well, and there in lay the problem for certain factions. Dumbledore, and others were expecting Gryfindor and were prepared to break protocol.

That and the fact Albus was more than a little certain after hearing reports of how Harry dealt with Death Eaters that if he went in Slytherin… well the young wizard probably wouldn't distinguish between parent and child with regards to affiliation.

When he did hear reports regarding the train station attack from his sources and others that Harry was extremely, or at least it seemed, well versed in the old ways.

This for the old man could be good or bad. Bad since chances were if the young wizard had vassals, goblins of all things, there was very little to stop him from declaring a vendetta, or worse a blood feud against the Death Eaters.

No that wouldn't do, and besides Dumbledore figured Harry would fit in in Gryfindor house, at least with his demonstrated Gung Ho attitude. Given that nature and sticking Harry in the House of the Lion it would be easier to discuss certain matters. Of course Dumbledore wasn't the only one with motivations to speak with Harry Potter.

The soon to start her second year, a member of that very house, was a bit more nervous now, in no small part due to the fact that the Death Eaters had some kind of magical exhaustion curse; they didn't really but that was what the AUrors were assuming it had been from.

Magical exhaustion was no small matter, the fact harry had been able to counter it was more than a little startling for pretty much all who heard or were involved, minus Harry.

The young wizard frowned, "Close the door," He didn't particularly want to be bothered by anyone during the no doubt very tedious train trip. Hopefully he could continue his research, or rather work on the matter of designing further spells.

Of course there were other issues, specifically the matter of lieutenants , which occupied a fraction of his attention. "So what are you working on," Katie inquired gesturing to the pen Harry was using, "I mean it doesn't look like schoolwork, and well you wouldn't have any yet any way."  
His frown deepened, she was asking what he was working on. He doubted it was an attempt at spying but at the same time she surely didn't think they were friend after all he'd done was transfer to her an absurdly small fraction of his magic to cure here stupidity induced exhaustion. "You are correct it is not course work," He responded, "It's a part of my researcha treatise on offensive application of elemental magical energy specifically further of earth." She stared at him, hopefully since she didn't understand she'd leave him alone.

"That's amazing so you're working on a new spell," Katie exclaimed still staring . He blinked, well that hadn't worked, as annoying as that was to admit. He grudgingly nodded, and then she sat down. "So that's why you were able to err… cure my exhaustion?" She asked.

Outside the majority of students had already begun to get on the train, saying goodbyes to relatives as they prepared to depart. The preteen scowled the girl wouldn't' be quiet he was trying to work. He was trying to use this time to get some research done after all power meant you were right. Still she'd probably be even more a nuisance if he didn't answer her inane questions, "Yes that's correct." His pen scratched against the paper detailing precisely how he wanted the basic spell to act. He continued as well as writing up the calculations for the matter of energy it would use, these were rough of course but gave a general idea.

Most of research regarding this field depended on mapping out precisely what it was he wanted the basic spell to do, and exactly how the magic would flow it was mainly theory work to grasp the spell. More advanced spells required more energy because they were either larger or more complex in their operation and thus would require more work. What he was working on at the moment however was fairly basic probably two and a half weeks worth of effort to get a solid grasp of with other projects occupying his time.

Harry enjoyed burying himself in his work after all the more effort he poured into it the bigger reward would be or rather he'd be that much closer to his goals, and it took his mind of other shit. The fact was as he had learned power was everything, and with more spells he had more power.

Magic could be channeled through a variety of mediums. Harry knew this and whilst his research in this field had not progressed very far in alternate mediums , he really was overburdened by work, that would change in time, especially if he recruited.

Spells were the most expedient deployment of magic, but their use was less than satisfactory when it came to certain tasks. It was where things lie runes, potions, alchemy, and the like came into play. Those branches while requiring research were fields which would be and were better suited to certain tasks. Harry's staff was one such example of the application of non spell related fields of research.

"Are the Death Eaters the reason you do that?" Katie inquired of him from the compartment's seat she now occupied beside his.

Her question caused him to frown. "No, they are just a nuisance," He stated, and really that was to him what they were because out of three attacks he'd been injured only once. The Death Eaters had the potential to be a threat in significant numbers just like anything else, but so far the rank and file were mothering but a bother.

Katie perked up. Gryfindors weren't exactly known for being studious, but the idea, even if the person in question was really rude, excusable considering what had happened earlier in the day, of learning from someone magic to fight the Death Eaters appealed to the soon to be second year. "Could you teach me?" She blurted out.

"You?" Harry muttered disparagingly, and snorted before he could catch himself, "Bah," Really she was stupid enough to go fiddling around with unkown magical items, his belts, teaching to throw balls of fire didn't seem particularly wise.

She gritted her teeth, "Whats that supposed to mean?" Katie demanded angrily. Harry was by no means intimidated by the girl but he was taken off guard by her angry outburst. Harry frowned as the train began to rumble finally the large scarlet engine was beginning its journey north to the school. "Why not?": Katie demanded crossly.

The young wizard gave her a 'are you stupid I am the eleven year old who can shoot fireballs get out of my bubble' look or for short 'stupid get out of my space before you get blasted.' Harry hated a number of things but few things annoyed him more than people being too close with out his express say so. It was a coping mechanism and it kept him out of physical harm in most cases. It took a good deal of self control not to react badly and lash out, "Step back," He growled a subtle flicker of energy passed through the compartment.  
Every hair on her body seemed to stand on end as the magic rippled and Harry's body language gave a subtle shift, every nerve seemed to have frozen and at the same moment flight or fight instincts fought for dominance.

Harry used his magic as his primary tool, as he was by no means capable, with his small body, of great physical prowess. He didn't need great strength though, his first instincts were maintaining his boundaries. People who got to close to him physically without much warning, his first reaction was magic.

A subtle shift triggering instincts of fear as he contemplated striking out was his first layer of defense it was enough to freeze someone in mid motion. Up until dealing with muggles that had been sufficient, but this was different.

He'd chosen other methods in Diagon Alley because fighting other wizards didn't appeal to him without more information, so he moved forward with his measures namely heavy offense. Harry clamped down on his emotions and instincts lashing out did not suit his objectives, the witch was not a threat. "I do not teach those who cannot learn." He stated standing swiftly entering her 'bubble' His index finger swiftly came up and poked her firmly on the forehead catching her b y surprise. "You suffered from energy depletion, and thus cannot learn." He stated as she blinked stupidly. 'Dumb girl,' he thought opening his book again and resuming his task.

As far things went Harry's childish tendencies cropped up from time to time, but for the most part his goals kept him focused unfortunately he'd gotten distrccted and for the moment it meant he wasn't going to be able to focus.

Katie huffed and sulked irritably at the wizard's response, but didn't say anything after all magical exhaustion was not a small thing, grudgingly, not that she'd admit it he did seem to have a point.

Harry likewise sulked irritably working on his research, and really hoping she didn't open her mouth again; too much to ask for apparently. After a few moments however the two started speaking though neither broached the matter of Harry's magic research, and Harry had a habit of zoning while he was occupied with his 'work'.

The two discussed meaningless topics for the most part. There was a loud shuffling outside the door, some idiot hadn't found a compartment yet, Harry surmised, or is looking for someone, since the person was lugging his trunk around.

He didn't really care considering he had locked the compartment after the train had begun to start up. Harry snorted whatever it was it didn't particularly concern him right? Katie peppered him with another question, and Harry ignored the idiot wandering the corridor of the train.

Katie decided not to bring it up instead asking about quiditch, which Harry, surprising for her at least, had been notably disinterested in, which was odd because it was 'their sport', supposedly. The young wizard hated sports, though he wasn't going tome flat out and say that, especially since Katie seemed to be interested, and was probably representative of the wizards, after all he did need subordinates who could competently use magic. She did still annoy him a bit though, but he did admit she could be useful, and as she was apparently willing to learn.

The matter of lieutenants was something quite critical to his plans since even he admitted that he'd need to compartmentalize and spread power, not to mention research took a lot of his time. Of course all that was in the future he had time to work everything out, but having 'back up' was a good thing. It was something that obviously had benefits in a fight. Especially given the damage he could do with basic spells like the darts, with someone avaialbe to support him it would be a boon especially since he couldn't bring his minions everywhere, not that he could spare them at the moment. Likewise help wasn't like to be available from his only non human allies, a single dark elf clan.

As far as battle went he could get support at rather short notice, but they had the same problem with long term deployment that he did at present.

Wizard politics had been a potential worry, but as they were while they would be annoying rules Harry could abide them till he had the power to prove himself as right. Katie, her Father, and Harry were involving each other in such a political game, though only Harry and Lord Bell were acutely aware of the game.

"So uhm Harry I'd like to go find Leanne," Katie paused, "Err she's in my year, would you uhm mind coming with me?" She questioned giving him an imploring look.

The young wizard frowned and contemplated the request doing his best to weigh the benefits of each option. After a moment he scowled and shut his book, it wasn't as if he was going to accomplish a major breakthrough on the train of all places. He stood up and allowed her to lead the way after all it wasn't as if he knew who they were looking for. The train was now underway steaming forward dutifully towards their destination.

Even so only a few people were wandering from compartment to compartment so their wasn't much in the way of crowding in the magic train.

The two walked past a red head, "Hey Percy," Katie shouted, Harry stopped and blinked at the loud exclamation and her abrupt stop. "Have you seen Leanne," She nudged him, Harry, which was something the wizard didn't appreciate. "He's our prefect," she remarked.

"I believe," The red head began with an air of pretention and arrogance that grated on Harry, "that she was with Lee Jordan and my siblings Fred and George," He passed along the location and moved along after that if they saw his youngest brother, Ron or something, he was to stop wandering the corridors.

Snob was the term would use to summarize his opinion of Percy Weasley. The red's attitude did little to endear Harry to him, quite the opposite in fact.

"Sorry he's a bit of a prat at times," Katie remarked as they continued to walk the corridor of the train.

Harry snorted in response, "He's the type I levitate when they act like that," and that was true enough people who acted like assholes tended to lose touch with the ground or become intimate with it after all Harry wasn't above abusing his powers against those weaker than himself. HE was strong they were weak, power was everything.

Leanne was as it turned out was indeed with Fred, George and Lee, which was good news indeed. "So who's the kid Katie?" asked one of the red heads.

Harry cocked an eyebrow, "Your disrespect isn't appreciated," He murmured his posture shifting again as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one of his gloved fingers.

"George apologize now," Katie growled.

The red shrugged, "Whats the ickle firstie going to whoah!!-" George lifted up into the air and began to rapidly rotate in midair.

Harry sneered, "The ah ickle firstie is going to do this this," As loath as it was to admit, for Harry, it was from Dudley that Harry understood how to assert dominance. Dudley was a bully, when he met people he tried to assert that he was in charge not unlike pack animals like wolves. The red head was a year older, and was as far as Harry was concerned a potential belligerent ergo power was necessary to prove his dominance.

Katie stepped between him, and 'George'. "Harry's had a really rough day so apologize now," She growled to the red head.

"Alright, alright I apolize," George exclaimed turning a little green. "I wasn't trying to oomph," The red dropped to the floor. "Anyway sorry about that I'm Goerge Weasley, guess dealing with the Death Eaters would put any bloke into a foul mood, so eh no hard feelings eh Harry."  
The dark haired wizard didn't vocalize his real opinion, "Indeed," His point had been made he was stronger in just magic at the very least. Power was everything and Harry valued it in all forms, meaning he intended to have it in all forms.

"So eh you're Harry Potter," The second red head remarked, "I'm Fred, so whats fighting the Death Eaters like I mean you are just starting Hogwarts, most kids," He held up his hands hastily and added, "No offense," before continuing, "can't do that level of magic."  
He, Harry, raised an eyebrow, if that information was right, which it seemed to corroborate what he already had found out. Then in his age group he would have no peer of equal power, meaning no one had the power to challenge him, this was good. "The Death Eaters are weak," He commented, and for him they were. Of course being born as the 'Dark Lord's equal' had a rather large effect, and the fact he started practicing magic so early was the other major part of the explanation.

Even so the Death Eaters did have at least two advantages, numbers, and for the time being larger spell repertoires than Harry, or at least that was what he assumed. All the same the sheer difference in reserves meant Harry's destructive 'blasts' could be used to mow down swathes of enemies in rapid succession.

Katie introduced Harry to the other two students in the compartment starting with Lee, the twin's friend, and Leanne, Katie's friend. Lee promptly showed off his tarantula. It was disappointing for Harry, though at the same time a slight relief that the arachnid was quite mundane.

Lee was a wizard, but his spider was normal, which was disappointing of course it meant Lee was less of a potential threat. In any event the twins and Lee got into a conversation about that inane sport that was apparently the 'big thing' in the wizarding world.

Such talk didn't interest him sports were stupid even if Harry recognized the usefulness of being physically fit, of course riding a broom didn't seem particularly conducive to that.

Katie exchanged 'girl talk', he assumed it was such any way, and Harry leaned against the wall and scratched away with his pen in his book patiently it didn't really matter where he was working.

"Err you want to head back?" She asked after several minutes of which Harry had lost himself in his work.

He raised an eyebrow, "I am quite cable of returning on my, if such is my wish," HE commented a faint anger at his misinterpretation of her question, "By all means remain here." The young wizard opened the door only to stare at the already robed form young teen.

"Well, well if it isn't the trouble makers," The newcomer said smugly.

Lee gritted his teeth, "Get lost you slimy Slytherin bastard," The boy growled his entire body posture shifting into that which equaled confrontational.

Harry frowned, "Get out of my way," Each word he spoke held the threat of pain, this 'Slytherin' whatever that was , was acting that confident , confident enough to provoke the twins and Lee. So either he was confident in his own abilities and power to take all three on ate once or he was just arrogant, neither would incline the newcomer to respect Harry without a lesson.

"Why you," The older boy went to draw his wand with a flourish, and by the time he reached into his robes Harry was bringing his power to bear. The 'boy who lived' lashed out and pain rippled through the 'Slytherin's' form forcing him to his knees.

Harry plucked the wand from his hand as the 'slytherin's' eyes began to water in pain, "Know your place and get out of my way," From what he had learned wands were important items for whatever reason. Harry presumed it had something to do with some kind of bonding between wand and wizard, but ever the case they were important in society. In this case taking it by force was a gesture of supremacy, power, and dominance and exactly the message that Harry wanted to convey. In any case he understood that he needed to show restraint in use of force considering these weren't Death Eaters, of course at the same time he was assuredly allowed to use magic to remind them of their 'place'.

So while he wasn't going to kill them, they could be useful after all those who annoyed him would suffer the same consequences as the muggles in Little Whinging who annoyed him. I.E. grave misfortune and minor accidents, but since these were wizards he could just hang them around in there are for a bit, or other 'minor' stuff like that.

The young wizard started walking back towards his compartment and Katie decided to follow after him a few moments later. "Harry wait up." She called after him.

"Explain now," He growled to the older girl, "What precisely was the cause for that incident back there, and is it going to happen again?"  
"He's in our well actually the twins year but he's part of a rival house," Katie explained, she went on to giving a very brief run down on the four houses, and the animosity between Gryffindor house and the Slytherin house, which had been around for a while it seemed. "So uhm what are you going to do,"

"I'm going to go peer over my research and attempt to get some work done," He stated, "hence why I stated you were welcome to remain with your friend."  
She frowned, "are you implying I'm to stupid to understand your research," He gave her the 'do you really want to know what I think', causing her to huff, "well I'd like to help.

"Don't be ridiculous, we've been over this." He responded,, "You know nothing about the mechanics and processes behind such research," Admittedly he did need to start recruiting but asking to help do research was totally out of the question. Mainly it was because Harry didn't feel like accidentally being blown up. Not that he thought she would be of any use at present. "Its an academic matter," He remarked "and you don't have the basics studied."

The Earth spell project he had shown her was a basic form of work, and critical for controlling more advanced forms of the element being manipulated by the spell, but it was only one of many projects he had running simultaneously. He had so many experiments running and ideas for many more because he'd get distracted or another item would catch his attention.

The duo passed a couple of chattering students loitering in the corridor, more than the when they had went to find Leanne but still the corridor was fairly empty. The Hogwarts express was despite looking like an old fashioned muggle train on the outside, was much larger on the inside than it should have been.

Harry didn't spare the chattering students that they passed any attention, "This train ride will take most the day." He remarked opening the compartment door.

They, the train and its passengers, had left London behind already, and the last time Harry had looked out the window, in the Twins compartment, they had been passing fields and hills. The same was true and occasionally cattle and sheep could be seen from the windows of the train.

Katie and Harry stepped into the compartment they occupied, and Harry slid the door shut, though this time he decided not to lock it. "Alright then," She declared, "teach me the basics." Katie stated as Harry stepped back from the door.

"Knowledge is power," He stated, "Having power is the key to survival ," The young wizard dropped his book into his seat, "You want to learn the basics? There are any number of fields to produce offensive magic what I typically use I generally label under the broad term evocation, the spells could correctly be further subdivided." A ball of flame manifested in his hand, heat and light flowed from the perfect miniature sun that floated over his open palm. "Fire is only one potential element, which can be used, earth and wind are other potential elements that can be used."

Actually as far as elements as far as elements went Harry was working on several spells in the middling development stage that would cover an element or non element, as the case of unaligned, sonic or acid attacks and such were in his 'book.

Katie nodded, "Okay so fire like what you were using earlier is only one element you can use, and wind and earth are other options."

"You need to understand the element in question, and understand how it works." Spells like magic missile and the other versions which had added propertied required understanding, and focusing the projectile and making it so it possessed the other effect. Fire aligned missiles were literally highly focused and contained fire balls that exploded on impact and could potentially burn through steel if there was enough energy in the spell, or set fire to the surrounding area.

Harry gave a basic run down on the nature of 'fire' and the crafting of energy, he was telling her this because she could be useful. Katie was eager to learn but by the end of what Harry called a 'basic if short' run down she was gob smacked. "So do you understand now?"

"Uhm… can we go through that one more time, please?" she asked fiddling with the Slytherin's wand. "And the spell with the Slytherin was that elemental or non elemental?"

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: I'll conclude the train ride next chapter. Other students will be introduced and the Twin's 'Slytherin friend' will attempt to get even… wow that's going to go over well. Harry as you will see doesn't really get the house set up idea yet, most of his studies as I'll elaborate involved him looking at the wizarding world as a whole, and looking into the Death Eaters who escaped prison on shaky terms.

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	8. Chapter 8 The Train Ride II

Chapter 8

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: To address my dear SilentWhisperer the Twins were with the rest of the Weasleys during the attack on the platform they were outside of the platform. As to Katie not being ready for evocation of course she's not ready that's the whole point, and for the love of god space your words my eyes hurt trying to read that review its was so squished my eyes they were in pain. Other than that thanks man.

In any event so much for finishing the train ride this chapter.

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Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

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Chapter begin

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Harry had looked rather thoroughly through his text books for the coming school year, and what he found indicated he would b e unlikely to find someone like… rather someone who was his peer. The Twins remarks supported this hypothesis. Wizard education seemed to be a slight foolish when it came to teaching a spell, since it seemed they taught it without actually teaching it.

Harry didn't use verbal incantations as it really wasn't necessary considering his repertoire and how he was used to molding and shaping the energy as he desired. Unfortunately Katie was a having a problem grasping it. Not that Harry particularly expected anything since he had not the slightest intention of explaining everything and had safeguards in place. Knowledge was power after all.

The young wizard riffled around in his tote bag, which amongst other things contained a few research journals and a couple of dog eared fantasy novels. "Err what are you doing?" She questioned peeking over his shoulder.

He frowned, "Step back, and have you grasped the idea behind the basics of fire yet?" Harry responded not bothering to answer her question.

"But its completely different than what they teach at Hogwarts, its all about the spells name and movement and what its supposed to do." She complained, "and your not being any clearer on what it is I haven't got."

The dark haired boy rolled his eyes and leaned back and opened the book he had pulled from his tote bag. "I've told you that which is needed to come to an answer," The book was similar to his other journal but had a different cover. "Its not a difficult matter," He responded she wasn't likely to get but even if she did it had the potential to be useful to him.

He wasn't going to tell her everything because after all knowledge was power, but if she could figure out precisely what he was asking it would be a good thing. She wanted to learn but she didn't seem to grasp the basics. As far as wizards went Harry was interested in expanding his influence, Katie was year older and eager, which meant she could be potentially useful in establishing power. This was especially true if he could force a hierarchy into establishmet. "That's enough just sit down," He stated feigning an irritation that wasn't quite fake at the witch. Katie wasn't quite ready to give up, but did end up sitting down.

Recruiting, or rather drawing people in would conceivably be easy considering he was famous of course at the same time people might not immediately recognize him after all he had just recently returned to the wizarding world. That fact still made him quite angry, but was something that could be addressed at a later date. There was also the potential issue of the matter of his age complicated things.

As it stood from Harry's perspective , he was starting his first year so it, his age, might effect perceptions so he'd have to do his best to make sure it didn't effect his plans too much if at all possible. He turned his attention unto other matters. As far as politics went there were issues to consider, mugles didn't posses magic capability, so thus they were inferior, of course Harry outright dismissed the notions of blood purity, which so many so called purebloods preached, it really did seem stupid.

The fact was magic as he had understood it wasn't limited to him, and that was the problem, there was the chance of others discovering things. Muggleborns possessed magic and thus could potentially be useful, though it seemed the 'purebloods' didn't consider this. At the same time the old pureblood families had a lot of power namely money and influence. Harry himself was also some with those advantages. The Potters were an old and very respected pureblood family and Harry himself was very powerful and of course 'boy who lived'.

The fact he'd fought the Death Eaters three times, who were wizards who terrified the public attested Voldemort's defeat was not a fluke. Of course the young wizard was not without his eccentricities, and no doubt by the morrow the paper would be proclaiming the boy who lived had goblin minions, vassals minions, as Harry grouped them, were rare in this age and just another defining mark. Admittedly Harry desired armies of course and eventual conquest and such on par with the novels he read, even if they were non magical in origin.

In this society Harry would be viewed as a very valuable political ally, and it wasn't simply the so called light side who were only interested in the boy who lived. Harry glanced at the hand drawn diagram on the page. In all honesty he couldn't understand the point of doing things the way the first texts explained, it really did seem rather absurd. Yes, Harry Potter had decided quite quickly that his method was quite superior.

Since Voldemort had been defeated the present generation of wizard children had grown up hearing about the Great Harry Potter vanquishing the terrible Dark Lord. These stories were embellished fairy tales busy extolling bravery and virtue.

Harry was quite the opposite. Voldemort when Harry had learned about from the book had actually caused Harry to laugh. Voldemort had twenty odd years to take over the wizarding world, and in comparison to the fantasy, minus Sauron, Dark Lords Harry was so fond of Voldemort was incompetent at least as far as conqueror went. Though Harry would concede, much as it pained him, the man clearly excelled in sowing fear.

Harry Potter was by no means the fair, brave and noble hero of stupid bed time stories or the fairy tales. No not by a longshot. All of that nonsense was jut that, complete propaganda, of course it was very widespread nonsense. Harry had taken his time to look into the wizarding world, specifically the immediate area.

By 'muggle standards' the European continents division of the magical world was a mish mash of varying ideas and states from the last couple hundred years. Each nation on the continent retained to some extent their 'national identity', in that they were culturally different from their neighbors, but they shared similarities quiditch and pureblood ideas being prominent examples. Politically things were pretty similar, especially since all indications pointed to the old families were given a lot lee way.

Harry had decided the Death Eaters would pay, and it was quite clear getting around the legal system in the magical world was quite easy. After Voldemort's defeat the majority of Death Eaters had gone to ground or just been caught. Those members of Voldemort's inner circle had either gone to prison or gotten off, or possibly evaded capture all together.

The law was nothing, if one had power, anyone from an influential family tended to get off. It was just like a few hundred years ago in the muggle world or now even in some cases. Harry had every intention of accumulating power for his own goals.

"So what are you working on now?" Katie inquired having apparently thrown in the towel for the time being.  
Harry looked up just as the compartment door slammed open. The young wizard seeing the incoming spells pushed off the chair and raised a barrier of flame. Solidified flame with the constitution of jelly blazed into existence radiating heat.

"Oh bugger," Grumbled the middle intruder with a groan, "You wanker you didn't say you pissed off Harry Potter," He growled to someone outside of the compartment. The green eyed wizard's glasses acquired a shine as lightning sparked around his hand. "Wait, wait hold on a minute it was just a joke see no hard feelings right," The middle intruder exclaimed as the wall of flame began to subside and hastily taking a step backwards.

Harry would have preferred simply blasting the three stooges into past, but that was out for the time being, he had enough impulse control to keep the urge in check.

In any event all that self control nearly flew straight out the window when he saw who he presumed but them up to it, "You," He hissed angrily. It really wans't that hard to figure out, the Slytherin's whose wand he had taken earlier had put these three up to trying a little payback, that hadn't been something he'd expected. Harry lashed out with his other arm the wave of raw energy sending him through the door of another compartment and dropping him in a heap. He turned and stepped back in his compartment before he took things a bit further.

The middle Intruding Slytherin who had wisely stepped to the side when Harry had stepped forward, considering the lightning around the wizard's hand a very smart move, took a tentative step forward. After all currying favor with the boy who lived was probably a good idea and sensible seeing as he seemed to be prone to targeting Death Eaters… then again so to was not irritating him further, yes Redmond the Slytherin decided he'd just wait for Harry to cool off before trying to make amends for the unfortunate occurrence. Redmond took a step back, left his name and departed, he didn't envy the next person to bother the boy who lived.

Harry slid the door shut, "Is there a food car on this train?" He all but demanded as the sparks around his electrified hand diminished to nothing.

Katie perked up, "There is a food cart with candy and sweets," The wizard frowned that was unfortunate and irritating, "and there is the start of term feast when we get to Hogwarts," She added after a moment.

Books might be out of date, but people could attest to their experiences, which made Katie and other older students useful for asking questions regarding the school. Harry grimaced well since the train ride had hours left he 'allowed' himself to be drawn into conversation, if for no other reason he might glean some further insight. Katie had a penchant, Harry found for being particularly chatty and stubborn, and he wasn't about to pass up a possible source of information never mind she could prove useful. It was the main reason he put up with her more irritating moments such as nagging. Harry was for reasons he 'd rather not discuss rather confident in his own ability to survive, this of course was only reinforced by the fact he'd survived the killing curse as a baby even so he would admit he need help. Katie was an expedient choice for recruitment

"So that lightning thing was really cool," She remarked,

He rolled his eyes, "Don't even think about it if you grasp the basics of fire lightning is vastly beyond your capacity," Katie huffed indignantly at the statement. "And its power intensive," Harry added, bringing up her recently depleted reserves, which was apparently a big thing for them. It was also the kind of thing Harry was fully prepared to exploit and capitalize on.

It was thus most annoying when the door opened. In any event Harry's eyes snapped up to glare at the doorway. Katie also perked up though minus the belligerence.

Harry had just taken on a couple Slytherins of course fighting on the train probably was just going to over oh so well with the prefects and she doubted the Slytherins would be content to let the issue lie.

Of course he was Harry Potter people would probably, as her father had remarked, seek him out. Wizards tended to flock around the powerful that was just how things were.

The dark wizard leaned back silently cursing, as it stood the latest bug was the chatty ponce from the clothes shop.

"Yes I do believe told you Potter was in this compartment." Draco trailed off noting Harry wasn't alone, and promptly considered this a problem even more so than the others who had tagged along with him. "Bell," He half growled.

As far as things went for Draco the presence of a Grfyindor one of the so called 'light' purebloods didn't bode well.

Katie was a bit more vehement at Lucius's spawn showing to Harry's surprise, which was strange given her initial lack of aggression.

"Enough," Harry hissed irritated at the cliché display of dislike as the two, "I've no patience at all to play referee to another fight." Never mind it had been him who'd been doing the fighting.

Malfoy nodded stupidly in agreement just from the angry hiss in the voice, and of course his father, dear old dad, had strictly forbid Draco from antagonizing the green eye wizard not that Malfoy was likely to keep that in mind for long if push came to shove.

"Harry," She protested, "His dad's a known death eater," Katie announced looking ready to throttle Malfoy.

He turned giving her the 'do you think I'm an idiot' look, "I am quite aware of this and that like others he bribed or via some other method evaded a lengthy prison sentence, your objection is noted now sit down."

Katie glared at the Death Eater Spawn, but took a step back and then sat back down.

Harry surveyed those behind the chatty ponce and grudgingly gestured them in, "Come on and get out of the corridor and shut the door," Wizard politics had to be even more stupid than muggles seriously the light and dark camps weren't quite that different. He wasn't keen on having a gaggle around his compartment in any case either.

"Why did you do that," Katie pressed leaning far to close for Harry's taste.

The wizard frowned, "Consider the situation, as annoying as you may find them," and he did find the intrusion as a bother as well, not that he'd say it, "Simply kicking them away like rubbish on the street in a prudent course in this situation." He whispered in response.

Whispering had done as it had been intended and Malfoy hadn't heard him, but was scowling none the less that he couldn't hear in the first place. Draco had been expressly told to try and get close to Harry that there were so many other purebloods trying to do the same didn't seem good.

After a general introduction of the other purebloods who were accompanying Draco they all dropped into seats of the compartment.

Lucius Malfoy was very much a member of the typical pureblood superiority ideology. The Dark Lord was gone, at least as far as the Inner Circle was concerned, but thast didn't make Harry Potter any less interesting.

Young Draco Malfoy shared his father's belief with regards to blood related ideology, but as far as things went in Draco's mind Potter didn't seem that bad. Then again Malfoy thought, or assumed, that Harry been considering going to Durmstrang, and that wasn't even bothering to bring up the whole wandless magic issue.

Harry Potter surveyed the group of new comers. The purebloods controlled nearly all aspects of the wizarding world, with the main exceptions being certain half blood owned businesses. They had control over businesses, and government… well for the time being.

James Potter had been a pureblood one of the so called light, but Harry was only just now being introduced to magical society, and he took great offense at having been kept from the magical world, but that was an issue that would for the time being have to wait. He could wait to deal with that matter once he had progressed further in his grand plan.

"I take it Redmond Boyle directed you here," Harry remarked, the Slytherin from earlier could be useful not precisely with regards to outside connections but within the school, after all the Boyles weren't one of the 'great families' like the Blacks, Malfoys, or Potters and Longbottoms, who with the exception of the Malfoys were somewhat on the descent or had been. The Carrows and the Bells rated far higher on his interests in any case.

As far as the Malfoys went they were another matter entirely. Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater, breaking the law that wasn't something that bothered him, that was not the problem Harry had with the Malfoys at all. Their known allegiances did not help their case, that much was apparent as soon as he learned of it. Of course they didn't need to know that they were enemies just yet that could wait in the mean time there were other matters.

Lucius Malfoy was a powerful political entity in this society and given his previous allegiance a serious potential threat. Malfoy, Draco that is opened his mouth to speak, as he did the door opened. No doubt about it by now word had spread precisely , which compartment was Harry Potter's.

"You'll find Harry," Oddly Draco's swagger and pomp seemed to fade only when he said the name of , "that some wizards are better than others," He remarked glowering at the latest newcomer.

Katie no doubt seeing where this conversation was going to lead decided to but in, "Do you hear about the break in at Gringotts," She inquired, Malfoy scowled at being interrupted.

Harry nodded, "Yes Gringotts dispatched a letter however to assure that nothing is wrong with the bank," He remarked. As far as things went he didn't see the big deal bank robberies were known to happen from time to time after all. More importantly none of his money or possessions held at the bak had been touched so he didn't particularly care.

In any event Gringotts had for whatever reason seen it prudent to send out letters to its account holders or maybe just the larger ones to assuage any concern over the safety of said account holders' monies.

"Have any of you seen a toad? Neville lost his." Stated the bushy haired girl who had a bossy sort of voices, and rather large front teeth.

Harry frowned but held up a hand to stifle no doubt any number of a pasty faced blonde, "We have not," He stated, "Seen a toad in this compartment," The young wizard decided he was locking the door when this person left, he was really getting sick of this.

The bushy haired girl seemed to have turned her attention to the research journal, which was sitting to the side of Harry. Her look towards his book didn't put the wizard at ease. "oh are you ahead, I did as well, I'm Hermione Granger by the way."  
Everything about her from statements to vocal inflections irritated him especially the know it all attitude that seemed to infect her speech. "I am Harry Potter," He responded,

"Are you really?" She seemed to be surprised, "You're in Modern Magical History, and the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, and when I went to Diagon Alley you were in all the papers."

Muggles were as a whole something Harry disliked, not the least in part due to the Dursleys, as well as other part was the matter of philosophy and to an extent the destruction of the world's environments and of course their lack of magic.

Muggleborns were a link to this inferior group, but they did posses magic, which also raised another issue. Even so with these potential problems they could be acceptable of and maybe even useful if they were of like mind. Clearly this didn't seem to be the case in this instance.

"So which is that?"She veritably demanded of him, "Did you get it in Diagon Alley?"

He frowned, "Most assuredly not this is mine, the copy that presently exists," The young wizard responded the thin veneer of civility rapidly dissolving, "As to what it is, it's a journal on evocation."

"Oh um in that case may I see it once you're done?" Her voice indicated she really didn't expect him to refuse, but the question alone pissed him off  
His fist twitched as a couple of sparks fed by the magic feeding off his anger and annoyance hissed, "Of course not," He snapped and Hermione took a step back, proving she certainly hadn't thought he'd rufuse. "I'm quite assured its beyond your ability to understand Elemental Evocation even something as basic as earth."

"But its knowledge that's something that should be shared," she half stammered.

He sneered and his hand twisted into fist, oh really did he want to lash out "Shut up, you're a naïve idiot, ands worse you're an intellectual," He snapped "who has no comprehension of things beyond theory." Harry snapped standing up sparks popped from his hands, "Knowledge is power, and power must be controlled lest there be anarchy" The idea of sharing on a basic level disgusted him, even though he admitted he needed help, and that itself took a lot of effort, and more than that it was a risk.

Katie and others potentially could help, and would in the course learn certain things, but never everything. "Harry your smoking," The second year witch in question announced worriedly.

The door opened and Harry tossed the bushy haired bossy girl out of the compartment, "That," He muttered was most distasteful." The young wizard frowned, a focused thought killed the sparks cutting off their supply of fuel. "I've little patience left this day," He muttered leaning into the seat. Energy flitted about him as his anger still affected his magic. Harry right now would have preferred to bury himself in his work, or loose himself in the woods or hills as a more base method and simply destroying things, things just kept pushing him today.

Malfoy and the other the pureblood children were in the way of this, but they were more interested in the energy anyway.

In the wizarding world power came in a number of forms, and it was widely accepted that raw magical power was typically was inherited. Strong wizards in other words were necessary for strong wizards and this had been believed long before Darwin and Lamark had spoken up in the muggle world. The purebloods considered it important to keep strong purebloods in the group. Of course this lead to problems obviously.

The Potters Harry's family had been light aligned not that the meant much the majority of the light were almost as against muggleborns as the so called dark. As far as things went one side was just more extreme than the other.

The light purebloods were just that pureblood families like the Potters had been pure for nearly three dozen generations, nearly a thousand years, just be because they were supposedly light didn't mean they thought any better of muggles. Harry hadn't been raised in the wizarding world and his distaste for non magical humans was an informed bias. He knew what they were capable of and that was the major difference between him and traditional purebloods and their bias. It was that capacity which also made him dislike them.

Harry fully intended to destroy muggle society by taking out their most dangerous cards to play. It was a secret Harry didn't intend to share anytime soon.

"Didn't you say power was the key to survival?" Katie asked to which Harry glowered in response turning his head from the crook of his arm.

This was not a conversation he wanted to have right now , "Do you want idiots running around with the capacity to cause earthquakes," He responded acridly, "Power is necessary to survive, but at the same time knowledge must be restricted to those who are dependable."  
Malfoy's brow creased, he couldn't comment on that, but admitted it sounded well sound, and decided to butt into the conservation anyway. "What is in the book exactly," He half demanded,

Harry considered tossing the blond out on his ass as well but Katie beat him to responding.

"It Magic Malfoy," She commented condescendingly in the manner that only girls can pull off, "The kind that kills," she stumbled on the word, "Death Eaters,"  
Harry nodded idly before settling back in his seat, it was inaccurate to a point, but there wasn't a point in correcting her in this particular instance. She'd drawn Malfoy's attention and correcting here would only embarrass her and embolden the chatty blonde's arrogance. "Tell me Draco," He said enunciating the name, "What is fire?"  
"What?" He responded in surprise, "What do you mean fire is well fire."  
Harry shook his head, this was already making him feel better, "How foolish," A sphere of flames sparked to life hovering in the air, "You know so little," Malfoy flushed, as the heat and light permeated from the glowing orange orb of flame. Harry snuffed the flame with the barest of thoughts on the matter, after all fire had its byproducts much as he detested muggles they did know such things without using magic, "about the greater world." It was a statement expressly made to deal with certain things. It amounted to a fancy remark to turn away by embarrassing the other party because of their ignorance. Frankly Harry liked making people feel stupid it was just a petty little thing that he took vindicitive pleasure from something he might, might, or might not out gro as he got older.

Fred and George decided to arrive, "Hey Harry might want to watch it rumour on the train is Patrick,"

"You know nasty sliythinering whose,"  
"eh wand you relieved him of after he was being"

"a right git and all is on the warpath" The Weasley twins finished in unison.

Harry stared blankly as far as things went them delivering the bad news was not an issue but finishing each others' sentences, now that was down, just down right, disturbing well for Harry in any case. He paused before speaking, "Ah duly noted," He muttered, as far as things went he wasn't sure whether the guy he had tossed into the other compartment opposite to this one was up to, but apparently the 'Slytherin' couldn't take a hint. Harry could even empathize to a degree, and that was a rarity, with regard to the matter.

Malfoy wanted to make a snide remark about the Weasley's and of course their state, but at the same time recognized his own tenuous status in the compartment. It was a subject which could cause a great deal of jealousy in the years to come, but for now Potter had powerful spot, and he would in the future.

Harry was an icon in the wizarding world. At the same time the current influential Death Eaters were vying for power and influence and they weren't the only ones, nor was it just the adults.

The Malfoy name alone would usually have been sufficient to establish Draco as a prominent member of the young pureblood society, but Harry as well as other purebloods who were up and coming were going to change that. Harry had his own goals as did others. Draco didn't' unfortunately. Draco was also used to being on the 'inside'.

Hogwarts was going to be interesting indeed.

Harry did however at this very moment have a slight problem namely he wanted the new comers to leave, which could be a problem.

Admittedly it was long until Draco's narcissism finally the better of him and he set off on the twins… real smart.

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Chapter conclusion

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Helltanz's notes: Again incomplete standby

one of my major plot points for later on I another Harry –type with regards to magic and I've been vaguely hinting at him, and more vague hints will follow though they are more prevalent in this chapter.

As you'll note Harry shows a number of signs of both anti social personality disorder and complex post traumatic stress disorder which will be expanded upon as time goes on.

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	9. Chapter 9 Arriving at Hogwarts

Chapter 9

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: World building then finally Hogwarts. Also people read my profile, its very helpful in not simply asking questions, but also to find out what I'm doing. It will tell you what I'm working on fic wise at present.

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

Chapter begin

The ride on the Hogwart's train had taught him one thing at least... and that was make sure you don't skip on breakfast in favor of exploring further magics. Also it would be a miracle if he didn't seriously hurt someone for being a pest or an idiot, or a racist idiot, even Malfoy, who had thoroughly proven his stupidity, wasn't quite that stupid; to Harry at least.

Right now Harry was ocupied with the rest of the purebloods who had arrived with Malfoy. Each compartment of the express could seat eight people in theory. In practice however however most people sat with their friends, and only filled up a compartment partially. Due however to the obvious magical nature of the train; being bigger on the inside than its outside should permit did allow the train to carry everyone comfortably.

It wasn't too far off to speculate that the train had been meant to accommodate more students sometime in the past. To that angle wizarding history was rather vague with hard numbers and specifics. Even so financial information gave a more interesting picture. The world wars, the various dark lords, and even British Imperialism had all had effects on the population of the wizarding world though of course this had been no where near the level in numbers of the muggle world. At one point however the growth rate and population of the wizarding world, both in Great Britain and the old world had been higher.

The wizarding world had thrived during ancient times particularly in Rome, China, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. When those ancient civilizations had declined so to had the wizarding world When the Roman Empire fell wizarding society fractured, and seperate national, and tribal identities formed, and continued to exist in modern day. This had been the end of a golden age that had existed since the Roman Republic.

The republics of Italy remained divided, and Germany had only briefly unified under Grindelwald before collapsing in the wake of his defeat. France and England were really the only true major powers in western Europe, and they made sure everyone knew it.

There was a valid reason for this division, those who tried to unify typically were branded as Dark Lords or had unfortunate accidents. All to quickly did France or England label a foreigner a dark lord for attempting to unify. They had for centuries saw it as far too dangerous to their own influence.

Hogwarts was as divided. The four houses seemed to exist just to cause contention amongst the student body. It all honestly, as Harry perceived it, encouraged them to fight, and Harry didn't mind at all.

The Houses seemed, especially Gryffindor, and Slytherin to be prone to or easily provoked to fighting. There in was the issue to be sure, as being sorted to either could be an event that would put him on rocky grounds at best with members of the opposite house. Hufflepuff was considered the weakest of the houses, a fact they might not take well, which brought up another point of contention; not that Harry cared.

"Fighting the Death Eaters isn't smart, Potter," Theodore Nott remarked scathingly. While both Malfoy and Nott were both Racist, with a capital R, and believers of blood purity one was worse than the other. One was also less snobby too.

Nott was worse because while Malfoy presumed his pure blood status made him special, most of his arrogance came from faith in Daddy's power. Lucius was ably powered, and smart after all. "And what would you know of smart?" Anger and annoyance fed flames, "You see I'm quite certain trying to pick a fight with me is suicide. Just like when, not if, I kill your mask wearing daddy I'll be sure to send his head back to you." The pulse of magic Harry released slammed Nott against the wall. There was no beam of red light but this was the closest Harry had to the common stunning spell; stupefy. In this particular case the stunning spell actually had greater range than Harry's equivalent.

While Daphne didn't react, and Katie, was admittedly, too busy enjoying the death eater spawn getting knocked out to notice someone else had a thought, and it wasn't Malfoy. 'This is Harry Potter.' Tracy Davis shrunk back away from Nott and into a corner.

Actually, not that Harry knew or cared right now, as far as things went Nott's father opposed Rossier. More importantly was sticking to the sidelines at present, but Harry had no way of knowing that. Nott senior might have escaped a prison sentence, but his affiliation was well known. For Harry that meant it was 'safe to assume', that Theo was an enemy.

This wasn't just boys being boys. As far as thing were Theodore's first thought would have been to go for his wand. That would have exasperated Harry's aggression and no doubt provoked the already ready to fight wizard to burn first. Even Harry knew this was going to far, Nott had magic that meant he could fight back and that meant, in Harry's mind being not a Muggle meant there was little reason to spare him any quarter in fight. Nott had magic if this escalated Harry would go to far.

Nott got thrown out of the apartment, and the door got shut behind them. Once this was done a soft voice spoke up, "he does raise a point, Potter. Not everyone will be so keen on your opposition to the Death Eaters."

Someone would come upon Nott later on surely. For while Muggleborns seemed for the most part to stick to their compartments they sat in, purebloods and half bloods would go to and fro to visit friends in other compartments. Nott would be fine in the hallway.

"You're referring to older students," He remarked. A valid point. The older students of pureblood lines commonly called the dark families were an issue.

Katie spoke up, beating Harry to the point he had paused before addressing, "Harry can handle them."

"I've killed death eaters, but we know this." He remarked, "but this isn't so much an issue as proving it." Harry stated. Beating the idiots with sufficent application of magic might solve the problem, but also might risk antagonizing others. Oh well it was worth the chance. Contrary to the idea, while there would quite likely be some idiots, namely the overly eager to put on a death eater mask, not everyone in Slytherin house was so keen on picking a fight with Harry. Not everyone would be like that, some recognized that Harry had a lack of restraint once a fight started. Thinking of Nott laying their unconscious and defenseless in the hall made Harry want to drive the message home. It was actually a good thing Nott was out of the compartment and out like a light, because his snobbishness would surely have just provoked Harry further.

Still the girl who'd spoken up raised a point. The presence of them, the new first years who would likely be Slytherins, raised issues.

Harry as a rule, or what basically amounted to a rule, avoided his peers. This of course had been due more to their lack of magic. Too much chance of an incident, and by incident conflagration would be a more apt description. In this case things were different. In this case despite the fact he could, and would have little qualms about burning them alive, he knew he shouldn't.

He was at a disadvantage. This was his issue, his burden, and the end result of childhood. Where purebloods were cloistered by tradition, Harry isolated himself for protection, pre magic, and for secrecy after its discovery. He didn't deal with others, but there was no choice but to interact.

Harry still would have preferred being clear of all this chatter. They tossed around magic to easily, these purebloods, but then there were no muggles around. It had been all to easy to adopt the word. Still they but him on a hair's breadth of the edge. They used magic for jokes, but it was still magic. Hard to tell what was a prank and what was an attack. He was already tired and hungry.

Malfoy was a nuisance, was even of a nuisance now than his jabbering had been at the clothes shop in the wizard alley. Silently Harry considered that it would be astounding if Malfoy survived all the years of schooling if he annoyed other people half as much as he did Harry.

The sad thing was Harry wasn't the only one annoyed the blond's fellow purebloods were getting impatient with his constant talking. Katie for example was ready to throttle the blond if he didn't shut up.

Nott was a pest, and would be one at school. Between the three, Katie, Malfoy, and Nott though it was difficult to pay attention to the others. Everybody wanted to speak and no one wanted to listen.

– Scene Break-

Harry Potter's actions against the Death Eaters had its effects, and would have its effects on Society; good and bad effects. Following the Dark Lord's fall the Death Eaters had fractured splitting off to follow their own new leadership. There were also younger pureblood wizards, in their late teens and twenties, who were discontent with the way things were, but all that would come into play later on.

People were too shell shocked right now. Even the old men who played the great game of politics and influence peddling were amongst them, but they knew a change when they saw one. The fact a number of them had children at Hogwarts, well that would make things interesting. Harry was for the time being unaware of this. School, even magical school was still school.

Eleven yearolds didn't involve themselves in the intricacies of politics.

Abusive homes bred scarred children, when you added magic to the mix problems were sure to follow. Harry could truthfully say his opion of others' opinions could amount to an 'and I care?' or something to that extent more often than not.

"Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall began, "and miss Bell please follow me, to the hospital wing."

Harry's opinion of this teacher was less than sterling, though it wasn't anywhere close to loathing. He could honestly say he liked her, but it wasn't like he hated her. To contrast Harry's noncommittal opinion Katie genuinely liked the head of Gryffindor house. "are we in trouble professor?" She inquired, given the ruckus on the train it wasn' unlikely they could be in trouble.

"No Miss Bell, we are, as I said, merely going ot the hospital win so that Madame Pomfrey may check on the both of you," The stern looking woman responded. "Both of you come with me," the transfiguration professor instructed before heading up the stairs. Filius would be handling the introduction for the newly arrived students, and taking care of the 'explanation' of the Hogwarts house system while she handled this.

A ghost passed through the dark haired wizard as he stepped onto the stairs. The feeling of the spectre was highly disconcerting. Harry brushed his robes off. The trail of frigid unnerving cold vanished as heat bubbled within.

Magical castles were vast structures, which could with little effort reshape themselves. Hogwarts was a prime example of this ability. It was a mishmash of every conceivable castle feature into a single spectacular structure. These magical castles were awe inspiring. Hogwarts wasn't attacked because to do so was suicide.

Magical castles weren't built anymore because they were expensive, and required so much in the way of manpower. They were an endeavor that could require entire clans of wizards to create. These were relics, invincible pieces of a forgotten age. Unlike their muggle siblings they could not be starved out, the typical method of beating a castle.

Harry followed down the stone corridor, and up another flight of stairs after the professor. Hogwarts, just the interior of the central keep, was immense. The fact was probably to be expected given it had been funded, and built by the combined effort of four legendary wizards.

Honestly though the four sounded straight out of a modern low fantasy book. Harry thought the infamous founder of slytherin looked more than a little strange the monkey like features giving him the appearance reminiscent of a figure from chinese mythology, but that was neither here nor there.

The hospital wing as it turned out was a collection of beds, and a few adjacent rooms for more severe treatment, Harry speculated, located all on the fourth floor. The main room housed the majority of the beds, and was defined outside of that by the number of large windows.

The matron had come out of, presumably, her office to greet them. Almost immediately however she went about fussing over Katie, which was fine for Harry not so much for Katie.

"Why am I here?" It was just an issue of pride, it kind of hurt it to ask the question.

"Miss Bell recently suffered a bout of magical exhaustion," He frowned at McGonagall's explanation. "and?"  
"Mr. Potter this is serious."  
Was it really? He shrugged out of impulse, it didn't seem like it.

In the mean time Madame Pomfrey continued busily fretting over Katie and the diagnostic spell.

She was fine, they were just over reacting, he assuaged himself.

As it turned out what the mistress of the hospital wing was fretting over a minor anomaly, which Harry had no experience of, and outside of a minor spec of interest, but he quickly lost interest. The matron speculated that it might be a by product of Harry's 'cure'. Harry's appetite was the more pressing matter, and McGonagall lead them down to the Great Hall after she was sure the feast had already started. Harry ignored the gawking, and whispers for the most part other than the 'I mustn't flambe the rude, and idiotic' mantra of the day.

Katie lead them to 'their' table, and Harry went on to eating. In truth he'd never seen so much food in his whole life on one table, much less the total amount of the four house tables. This truly was an absurd amount of food. He was just hungry right now so he didn't care about the fancy ceiling, or the golden plates, or the countless floating candles. It'd been a long day from getting up this morning to here and now, and even he had to eat. What he had paid attention to was the size of the school. Even the tables themselves were immense, and the hall was easily capable of doubling as a grand ballroom.

Katie had voiced some disappointment over missing the sorting, whatever that was exactly, but she had all to quickly gotten drawn into a conversation with one of the red headed twins from earlier over what McGonagall had wanted. Outside of the few students he'd met with on the train Harry knew no one here, but that likely would have been the case with any new school, magical or not.

Almost reflexively he reached up to trace the scar on his forehead. Now that was weird. A few years ago the scar had begun to fade from its original angry, vivid red, to its present faded discolored mark. He looked up, was it the potions master.

He had been a death eater. That'd been an issue seeing as so far all the ones he seemed to meet had tried to kill him. Harry mused on what'd be like to send a cluster of magical bolts tearing into the man's spine..

"That's professor Snape, Harry."  
"He's a greasy Death Eater, is what is. You've had the right idea with that lot so far," another student, older, who'd Harry had never seen interjected. "He's also Slytherin's head of house, like thats not trouble enough they're our rivals."

The Death Eaters had fractioned, and splintered after Voldemort's fall so was Snape an enemy. It couldn't be said for certain, one way or another.

"Slytherin has one the house cup for the last six years," Another, also older student put in.

Fred or perhaps George spoke up changing the subject, "Eh Harry pass the cookies." Harry helped himself to the pastries as he did so.

From the talk of the ongoing conversation it seemed like Slytherin would be a pain in the ass this year. The wizard took a bite out of one of the pastries. Jocks. It was a bit of a juvenile sentiment. The conclusion of the actual eating portion of the feast involved singing, much to Harry's distaste, which didn't finish fast enough with the red head twins' overly dramatic presentation of their 'prowess' when it came to reciting the school song. In the end though the school song got sang, and that was that.

Hogwarts as Harry had already borne witness to was divided into four houses each of which had separate dorms, each of which that were located away from each other. Hogwarts itself was quite large, and was connected by large hallways, and more problematically by moving magical staircases. That was to say the stairs moved, and shiftted as they wanted. This, as they were warned, made it very easy to get lost in the already large castle.

The House of the Lion based out of one of the castle's larger main towers. Gryffindor's common room was protected, and Harry used that term lightly, by a magic talking painting of a fat woman in an old fashioned pink dress, a drunk fat woman. It didn't exactly give a good first impression, or reassure him much. In any case the dorms themselves comprised a large common room at the bottom of the tower, followed by stairs leading up to each years respective sleeping quarters.

Muggle castles had nothing to compare to this, which of course was due to magic. Magical fortifications had numerous addons, which without magic their contemporaries couldn't hope to pull off. These addons gave the castle its distinct fantasy vibe. The tower which comprised Gryffindor's dormitory started on what was easily at least the tenth, or eleventh floor, and was by itself as many stories tall, while being quite wide. In fact it would be relatively easy to give the towers, not simply Gryffindor's, and the central portions of the castle the title of skyscraper. What was amazing was that Gryffindor's tower was not even the largest, or second largest. It was definitely something Harry wouldn't mind exploring.

Despite the last few generations of fighting purebloods actually outnumbered muggleborns, with half bloods forming a far more solid majority in both Hogwarts, and the wizarding world as a whole. This was partially due to muggleborns being while not hyper rare, were uncommon. There was also the fact that outside a few anomalies most purebloods had a few children. The incoming class of Gryffindor first years, like the other houses new students, was about forty kids.

One of the Weasley brothers stood rigid and pompous before the assembled first years puffed up as much as he could be. It honestly made him look like an idiot who was trying to look important. A number of the older, than Percy, male students blatantly just pushed past him, while those younger than him, but not first years walked around in a hurry to get to their dorms.

"Relax Harry, your trunk is in your dorm, everybody is divided into groups of five per room." He nodded, great four other guys. Katie headed off to her own door after he acknowledged her, a moment later he'd wished he had joined her.

Percy Weasley came off as a pretentious douche bag to put it mildly. "Welcome, welcome everyone. To Gryffindor House." He announced in an overly cheery voice that screamed born brown nosing bureaucrat. In any event after a totally unneeded lecture, and speech, and it was only after Percy finished that they were directed to their dorms. The boys, like the older students before them, headed up one flight of stairs, and the girls up another. First years got the next level of the tower for their dorms, the level above the common room, where as seventh years got the best view from the top of the tower. It was probably meant as favoritism or for its symbolism to the older students, the further you got in school, and what not. Harry didn't particularly care.

In any event the spiral staircase leading to the boys dorm area opened to a floor with doors leading to several rooms. Beside each door was a plaque announcing who all were assigned to that particular room. Inside the appropriate room he found five four poster beds, and at the base of one his trunk. He wasted no time fishing out the key unlocking it, and after the lock clicked open put his bag away.

So this big school was the most famous in all of England, geez what a day, and they were pushing this house thing down their throats weren't they.

– Chapter conclusion –

Helltanz's notes: We're at Hogwarts, finally. Read profile for status of updates for this fic and others, check frequently.

Regarding the chapter itself I honestly wasn't likely how my written copy turned out after I went back and read it so this chapter may end up being rewritten, as it is I cut off a page off the end. That page might get rewritten and added to this chapter at a later date.

Next chapter will cover the start of classes.


	10. Chapter 10 Settling In I

Chapter 10

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: Hogwarts is a fairly large school in this, most elite super school in all of England or what not. Short chapter, potions will be chapter 11

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

-Chapter begin -

The common room, and the dorming were certain new experiences for Harry. It was actually patently unnerving. Harry had never done sleep overs with any of his peers. In point of fact outside of one person who would not be named in Harry's prescence on assured pain of death by raging wizard, the sum of Harry's experience with his peers was the library and the rather minute reading club for fantasy and science fiction which existed in Surrey. It left him quite out of place.

By early morning, and Harry used that term only by the legal definition of what morning was, he was out of the four poster bed and in the common room peering over a half written manuscript; anything to take his focus elsewhere. Katie was not the first to nearly walk right past him, and was unlikely to be the last either. She rubbed her eye sleepily. "You're daft Harry if you're seriously working this early."

Nobody was really in the common room at this time in the morning. Most people were still asleep, probably still used to sleeping in from the summers, or if they were up already out and about the castle. Some of the older students, the only people who Harry had seen to already be up, had been rushing about, probably finishing any last minute summer work given the frantic scribbling that had been ongoing.  
He grunted, "I am not daft," Another few marks with the ballpoint pen before the ink was nearly out, and he cursed irritably at the indent on the paper. The dry pen went into the fireplace, and he went fishing for a fresh one. He finished another sentence before snapping the book shut. "Is breakfast already on the tables?"  
"Err probably," She replied after a minute of thinking, "you hungry?"  
He didn't respond immediately, but stood up. "Lets go then," I'm not missing food, certainly not before it gets crowded. The new pen went in his pocket, and the book in the satchel. After that they both exitted through the portrait hole, which Harry still thought seemed a poor safety measure, but at least the portrait wasn't drunk like last night.

Today was going to be the first day of class, and that didn't make Harry feel particularly good, seeing as he had no idea what classes were today, but they certainly couldn't be any more frustrating than anything he was stumbling through making at the moment

- Scene Break -

Hogwarts was an almost living maze. There were countless doors and false doors never mind the hundreds of staircases, which went every direction, and moved. It was labyrinthine in layout, and understandably easy to get lost in. Katie spent the trip down explaining the sheer variety of types of doors and stairs, and what they did sometimes on the way down from the common room.

As it turned out the Great Hall was fairly empty. The majority of Hogwarts some thousand plus students had yet to drag themselves from the posh four poster beds, or their common rooms yet. It didn't mean it was any more quiet though. The people who were already up and about were already boisterous, carousing with friends and discussing their schedule.

There was no sign of Malfoy, or the youngest Weasley boy, which was far as Harry was concerned good news. In fact looked like most of the "Good morning Harry," and he'd thought too soon, at least it wasn't Nott though. Going by the schedule McGonnagal had passed him to him on the way into the hall his first class was out on the grounds for a class titled herbology, which sounded boring as hell.

Harry set his schedule on the table, "Hello," He paused, "Daphne," He added after a moment. How exactly was he supposed to refer to her. The four houses were what exactly, it was like the school was encouraging them to fight. History said there were four founders each with there own ideology about students, considering numbers weren't even between the houses Harry had no idea how students got into the houses, but that was for later.

Gryffindor table had plenty of spare places to sit, not that Harry expected that would have stopped the pureblood from taking a seat. Harry sampled the available food, and read his schedule off to himself. As it stood one boring sounding class, and a class with the head of house. Worse still was they had herbology three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tommorrow the Gryffindor first years would have some history of magic class, and Charms, which had Harry not have read anything on the subject would have though was going to be pathetic. Wednesday night they would be having astronomy, and Thursday marked their introductory class for defense against the dark arts this sounded like a really bad combination since Defense was supposed to be an early morning class. Friday seemed like the best to get any _real _work done as they would be getting the majority of the day off, and the only class was an extended, double period, of potions with Slytherin, as Daphne pointed out.

"So we've got a class together at the end of the week," He stated. It didn't really change anything it was a stupid class, why she was pleased made about as much sense as the staircases here. Harry went back to eating, it didn't matter he assured himself. Friday would be a stupid class, and then he could do important things, and maybe read. Katie leaning over to read his schedule snapped him out of zoning out.

"So you've got Mcgonnagal after lunch," She remarked, "Well it should be better than Herbology, I mean Sprout is alright, but it's a class about plants."

"Boring in other words," He grunted he didn't need to be told that, he could speculate that on his own well enough. Potions sounded the same way.

A few more students entered the great hall, and the girls settled into talking and eating. Harry would ocassionally get distracted by some bout of noise from another part of the hall but by the time he'd mostly had finished his breakfast he'd already cracked open one of his journals. "Didn't you have a friend on the train?" He pried a bit looking up from the page.

"Tracy isn't going to get up until she has to."

Sleeping in, lots of people did it, Harry tended not to because of actually having trouble staying asleep, so he took naps to compensate. Still if her friend was asleep, why was she down here instead... who cared. He stared down at the other vexing problem before him.

"What is it?"  
He certainly wasn't going to admit it wasn't something he hadn't yet figured out...

- Scene Break -

As it turned out Herbology was in fact just as boring as he had expected it to be, and that was before a few of the other first year boys decided to act like five year olds and throw clods of dirt around, while the teacher wasn't looking. It was stupid, about as stupid as repotting the plants. Lunch had been as bad, if not worse. Probably worse, seeing as it'd been loud, and he had been stared and gawked at, and the whipsers had been a pain in the ass.

Transfiguration started an hour after lunch, a quarter after one o'clock according to the schedule. How precisely they were supposed to know what time it was exactly without clocks, though there was the bell that tolled, he had had no idea until he'd mentioned it to Katie, and was shown the rather hand time telling spell. That made sense, though he'd yet to see anybody else actually demonstrate the spell. There was also the fact not everyone had been on time to the class.

It was possible she had gotten on to them simply because they belonged to her house, but it didn't really matter. McGonagal had threatened them all that if she caught them goofing off she'd kick them out as well. Whether she actually would, Harry doubted it. Given the ruckus some, a rather sizable chunk, of his 'fellow' Gryffindors had caused during Herbology without any punishment he doubted she'd be able to kick them all out even if only half messed around in this class.

In any event after explaing the rules, she turned her desk into a pig, and back again. This received far more attention than anything she had said. Attention that was promptly lost as she began the lesson itself. Harry could agree, this was going to be worse than Herbology, they were turning a freaking match into a needle. He'd thought for sure that'd just been a practice example to get them started on their own.

"Mr. Potter," Everybody turned, Harry glanced up, what had he done, "Are you going to take out your wand and complete the assignment?" He grabbed the match, and it sharpened into a perfectly normal silver sewing needle. Mcgonagal's lips pursed, and turned back to the rest of the class the needle flared white hot.

This was so stupid, he thought, letting the metaled piece of metal fall onto the desk. Everybody else weren't really paying anymore attention to the class than he was. Most of the other first years were talking occassionally flicking their wands in half hearted attempts to look like they were working. It was pretty easy to say everyone was disappointed that they weren't working on anything bigger. Still no body had gotten it right, what the hell. Harry leaned back. Transfiguration, or polymorph, was a lot more difficult on the larger scale, especially with living things, Harry knew it, and that was why he had been looking forward to this class. This, this was immensely disappointing.

It'd probably had been the lack of attention, that had to be it, but finally people finally started showing results. The bushy haired intellectual had managed a little after half way through the class to perfect the transformation, that ended up provoking others to do it right, or at least try harder. Still it was embarressing the number of people who hadn't completed the task before class ended.

Still it meant that was the end of core classes for today, after all for mondays they just had Herbology in the morning, and then after lunch they had transfiguration. Herbology was shorter, and it met three times a week, while Transfiguration met only twice a week. Harry couldn't really say he was looking forward to Wednesday.

Finally the bell tolled signalling the end of class, and everybody headed their seperate ways. A lot of people headed back to the common room. Harry headed out to the grounds, intended to kill time until... well Katie got out of whatever she had said didn't get out until three. Besides he needed to work on earth manipulation.

- Scene Break-

After the let down of monday classes he really shouldn't have been surprised. Introduction to Defense against the dark arts was well the less said the better, and History of Magic was just an open invitation to do other things. The first year charms class suffered from much the same problems as their first transfiguration class had. That was to say what they covered was boring, so the whole thing went on with people talking during to their friends.

This kind of behavior got a pass when it came to History of Magic, Harry wasn't sure whether the teacher even knew it was going on, but at least McGonnagal and Flitwick tried to keep it to a minimum in their classes. Getting caught in Herbology just meant you were stupid enough to be fooling around while Sprout was looking in your direction. On the plus side the ability to do whatever, plus the average two classes a day meant Harry had plenty of time to do other, in his opinion more important, stuff.

As far as development went Katie's progress with fire was notably anemic, she'd managed to burn herself trying to figure out what Harry meant with the exestential question of what is fire. That she'd done it right in front of him made it that much more amusing, even so she had made a bit of progress, small though it was. Still she'd no longer need to have matches ever again... not that she really needed them if she had her wand, but that was neither here nor there.

It was disappointing. Harry had on his own blown most of his time working with earth and magic, and knocking himself into a tree, or rock, or the lake repeatedly. As far as things went earth manipulation was a lot more difficult, the other thing was just a control issue, that wasn't to say it didn't hurt it just was a slight bit less frustrating. Earth came down to right now two features, actual dirt, and rocks, slightly easier depending on what he wanted to do, to infuriatingly frustrating, when dealing with plants.

With the latter it wasn't so much making them grow as making them grow fast, and in the way he wanted them to in a timely fashion. The thoughts behind the magic was a more problematic focus than something relatively simple like fire, there was also the fact that plants were still living material, or Harry assumed that was a factor, maybe.

He sat up knocking clods of dirt out of his clothes. "In any event all I've got is double potions this afternoon,"  
"With the Slytherins you mean," Katie, who had gotten out of Transfiguration about an hour earlier, added.

He shrugged. The class was going to be a mess, at least that was what he was going to guess. For one the teacher was going to have a double period with likely eighty, really less than that, kids on a friday. There was also the fact there was the whole rival house thing going on, which really seemed to be a big deal; the red headed twins were already talking about their first big prank of the year on who else but Slytherin. Not that Harry had had any problems with Slytherin in the last five days, there hadn't been any trouble with Malfoy or Nott, because really he hadn't had to deal with them.

"Snape is Slytherin's head of house,"  
Harry nodded still writing down his findings, "I know, I've been told."  
"He's got in for Gryffindors especially."  
Well that was just wonderful. "Ok," He grunted, that didn't sound good at all, maybe he should buddy up with Daphne, "Okay set another leaf on fire again."  
"You're not even watching," She retorted as Harry's magic surged into the earth causing a sinkhole to form.

He stood back up, "So, I told you its the basics, if you can't do it right you've got to practice."  
"The leaf is burning," Which was true, the leaf had caught fire and curled in on itself, except, Harry grabbed another leaf and it snapped under the sudden influx of heat as it burned into nothing but ashes.

"Basics are important. They're the fundamental blocks of all learning."  
Harry glowered at the Ravenclaw, "She's right," He admitted, not that he'd have said it like that. "Why is it she can get the simple thing right and you can't," He added, actually he already had a solid guess. In any event he was surprised that so far not many other students had dropped in on them, on the other hand it was less annoying that way. As far as things went Katie had a grasp on what she was doing she just wasn't taking it to the next logical step, which was really simple either add more fuel, or make it burn faster, or both, which was a proportionally more difficult.

"We could invite more people," Katie suggested, after burning yet another leaf.  
"No," Harry responded, first of all he only let their third 'member' tag along because she wasn't a burden and managed to set things on fire, he certainly wasn't running some kind of club. He still needed to eat lunch. He certainly wasn't going to a double class hungry, but that could wait. A pillar of earth jutted out of the ground, he'd have shattered it, but well didn't for obvious reasons. It really needed to either be bigger or pointier, or both. His hand started glowing and a bolt of flame melted the rock into a mound of rather shiny black stone. Fire was so much simpler than making plants grow.

"You could make stuff like that," Katie remarked, Harry didn't both reminding her that the stone would still be hot, by this point she knew already. It'd only taken once, and Harry wasn't going to admit he had once made the same mistake too.

"Have you learned anything at all of use in defense?" He finally asked after a few moments of fiddling with sending magic through the earth.

"Not really Quirrel's nice, but he's kind of useless as a teacher."  
Well at least it wasn't just my class, Harry mused before standing up. "I'm going back to the dorm," He certainly wasn't going to go eat with dirt all over his robes.

-Chapter conclusion-

Helltanz's notes: This chapter was a pain in the ass to write, I did however add spacers between scenes. In any event we'll get to see more higher level showings from wizards as the story goes on, by which I mean Dumbledore will actually be able to kick much ass with transfiguration, and well Voldemort will do impressive things... yes totally. Anybody else I still need to figure out.


	11. Chapter 11 Settling In II

Chapter 11

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: I feel obligated that I should say something, that being there are no such things as the Deathly Hallows in this fic. In point of fact we'll see what all from Rowling's later books gets chunked out the window while the devil takes the whiskey, but before anyone asks a lot of this chapter is foreshadowing

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

-Chapter begin -

Harry finished drying off. He couldn't deny that thirty minute shower had been an amazing, hopefully there was still food though. Rushing down the stairs and into the great hall however did prove there was still foodstuffs to consume. After a couple of minutes of eating the food vanished, and Harry realized one thing.

That being if he didn't hurry up he'd be late for class... and there were three fucking slytherins in his way. "Well well is the ickle firstling lost? Or just trespassing?"

"Dick thats Potter." Interjected one of the teen's friends.

"Oh yeah it is," The first, Richard, said again, "What you poke around looking for our dorms eh Potter? The slytherin stepped in front of the wall. "Not like you'll find it, or anything."

"Well if this is the way to your dorms then where the hell is the potions classroom?" Harry grumbled, knowing he was going to end up late, which from all he'd heard was not a good thing.

The third guy blinked, "Wait somebody gave you the directions," He shook his head, "right if your off to Snape's its down the hall. You'll know it when you see it."

'As I'm completely fucking lost they'd better not be lying.' Harry thought heading down the hallway a few minutes later, actually given the snakes had disappeared it didn't matter. If they were lying he was going to be late, and from all evidence Snape was a tosser to any non Slytherin student If they were telling the truth he might still be late.

The potions classroom was, that was to say in Harry's opinion really what was he doing down hear... really brewing potions... in a cauldron, this was nearly as bad as the flying on brooms everyone had been prattling on about... quiditch or whatever. He tightened his coat, damn she'd been right it was colder down here. The place looked like one of his storerooms for ingredients, or the apothecary he'd visited in Diagon Alley except with more empty space.

From his own place of watching Snape had other opinions. Potter was bad news, wizards who favored fire magic never seemed to take well to potions, after all he'd been the dark lord's potion master for a reason. Severus did have a valid concern potions tended to be volatile around magical fields when, and for some even after the, brewing stage. This class had the potential to be even more of a headache than his usual first year classes. Snape flicked his parchment out, and started the annoying task of checking to see who all was here, it took a few minutes to finally reach the name, "Potter, how nice of our new celebrity to grace us this day with his presence," There was a smattering of snickering. Harry didn't care, his mind was off on another tangent, Snape's eyes were black, oddly like Hagrid's, that was curious, that certainly couldn't be common. "You are here to learn the subtle science, and the exact are of potion making," He began in a quiet voice, it was no trouble to hear him no body was talking. "Some of you will no doubt have a negative opinion of this form of magic, as their little silly wand waving, but I assure you this is magic. I do not expect you children to understand the complexity that is potions making, which has the power to ensnare the senses, and bewitch the mind. I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

… right stopper death he'd have to look into that...

"Potter!" thundered Snape, "Since you seem so attentive what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood."

… gee how the devil should I know, Harry looked up from his potion book's index, "Does it stopper death?"

"Your attempt at wit fails to be amusing," A certain bushy haired girl still had her hand up in the air, to which Snape ignored, "Lets try again where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar."  
Harry reached, "I have one in my backpack..." He got a few odd looks... what they were a general antidote it seemed like a good idea to buy a few at the Apothecary.

"Of course you do," Snape hissed, "Perhaps you can give a straight answer to this then what is the difference monkshood, and wolfsbane."

Oh that one was easy, "They're both aconite, but may be different colors."

"A fancy herbology Potter, P otter is correct though Aconite is another name for wolfsbane, and monkshood. If I were to add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood it creates the draught of living death a powerful sleeping potion most often by healers to stabilize those who have been nearly mortally injured. While a bezoar maybe found in the belly of a goat. Well? Why aren't you writing this down?" He roared at the class, who made quick to grab their quills, and parchment, "and Potter a point from Gryfindor for your cheek regarding the draught of living death."

… so it stoppers death, will have to remember that, "uh huh," He muttered softly Look up Draught of living death powdered root of asphodel added to an infusion of wormwood, he wrote on his paper.

Snape snorted irritably, well at least Potter probably wouldn't blow anyone up, that Longbottom fool on the other hand, "Divide into pairs," He shouted, "Your assignment is to brew a simple potion to cure boils, I'm sure you lot can handle something so plain."

Harry again reassessed his opinion of the glass back to the original why am I here again. Curing boilsg did not fit into his interests in the slightest. "Potter. Potter." The voice called again, finally he looked up, uh name...

"Daphne,"

"We're working together," She announced setting her bag on the desk next to his. They hadn't really said much throughout the week, as speaking during dinner was impractical given the separation of houses, so most of what little had been done had been when Harry, along with Katie, and the Chinese Ravenclaw had been practicing with magic. "And you still haven't told me what fire is," She added.

He sniffed irritated, "I shouldn't have to." The wizard looked at the instructions that had been written up on the old black board. "Go ahead and talk to Katie, she too fails to comprehend the basics,"

"and she's got more than a spark." Harry laughed, as he lit the fire under their cauldrons, "Perhaps you'd give me a hint."

He stood up, "Fire is an element of growth in life, it is heat, and consumption, and so much more." It was apart of the first page of every journal he'd written exclusively on fire, as part of an entire page describing fire. He flicked a page on his book, "Don't burn yourself." He added morosely, not that he really expected her to succeed he'd burned himself countless times with fire magic, and lightning tended to hurt worse, electrical burns were as bad as flames, and shocks were downright unpleasant put them together and... Humph,

He was pulling his own potions ingredients out as Snape made his way down the aisle of desks nearest the wall. "Potter in the future you may consider purchasing your potions supplies at Parkinson's apothecary," The potion's master groused sullenly, picking up a bezoar and examining it. "you will find despite slightly more expensive prices they provide better quality, though you seem to have gotten the best of Jigger's usually sub par stock." He remarked setting the bezoar down, perusing Daphne's ingredients, "you should have went shopping with your mother miss Greengrass." He commented picking up a handful dried nettles, scowling as he rubbed them between his fingers. "Use Potter's supplies, I shall see to it a order book is left in the common room for your use." He remarked before moving on, carefully examining Pansy's own potion supplies and deeming them of suitable quality for her family's business, before moving on to comment on her partner's.

Harry reached for his silver inlaid scale, and set it between them, "I want to see that catalog," He grumbled, pushing his own nettles over to her, and reaching for the snake fangs, and a pestle, as Daphne produced a knife to cut ingredients with.

The potion itself appeared more to be about preparation of ingredients, and following steps than anything else. He poured a handful of snake fangs into a mortar, as Daphne moved to weigh the dried nettles. Class continued relatively uneventfully, if you were to discount Snape's roving through the aisles of students working. In fact Harry had just taken his own cauldron off the fire when the explosion rippled across the room, his gloved hand ripped through the air and a blaze of angry golden white fire surged into life in a semi dome around him. Whatever the concoction was had impacted his shield leaving traces of melted, now molten pewter trailing down to

"Potter put the magical fire out!" Snape shouted, gesturing to the small fires of burning potions "and you idiot boy what were you thinking?" The professor demanded making his way through the mess as people picked themselves off the ground. Harry frowned and dropped the shield inhaling and snuffing the other flames in the room focusing on all but the candles that illuminated the class room. "I suppose it was too much to hope for that you weren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to deal with," Snape had begun after Neville and Seamus had both been sent off with burns to the hospital wing, "Potions like all magic has its inherent dangers," He remarked, "Potter in the future while it may be your preferred defense do not use fire around volatile ingredients."

"Yes sir." Harry responded nodding, as Snape flicked his wand and began to clean up the shattered table that Neville and Seamus had been using for their potion.

"This would not have been such a severe problem if Mister Longbottom and his partner had not been in such a rush, instead they would have merely ended up with a melted cauldron as opposed to one exploding on them. You cannot rush the brewing of even the simplest of potions." He barked to the students crowded around in a circle. "We're that I not had two students in the hospital wing you would all owe me an explanation of proper etiquette for potion brewing, now get out of here. All of you."

No one, not even the Slytherins, needed to be told twice. People immediately began to pack up their supplies, placing the remaining ingredients from the day's potion back in their kits, "And remember to clean your cauldrons!" Snape shouted at all of them as they left.

Harry reminded himself to do that, potions exploded violently, which could be useful.  
"Man poor Seamus but at least we're out of there." One of the Gryfindor first years remarked as they all walked up the stairs.

Snape sighed and leaned against his dungeon's wall, and that class had been going so well up until the explosion, still... he flicked his wand and sent the tables and desks sliding against the wall. He had students who were serving detention already who could clean up the mess tonight.

"Potter," Malfoy proclaimed as he marched up the stairs, unfortunately the down side to being a Slytherin shouting into the crowd of Gryfindors were rather obvious in hindsight.

-Scene Break-

What had followed had distastefully been the first real pissing match, but not the last, between the Gryfindor and Slytherin First Year boys. For people who had magic they'd quickly abandoned their wands to get in a shoving match in the middle of the hallway. It had not been a good idea, and not just because it got the first year girls in the crossfire. The only positive thing to come of it was that Snape, by some miracle had not caught them, nor had the caretaker, who from all discussions with Katie as just as bad. Percy Weasley however had heard about the debacle and he made sure to let the entire house know that he knew. Though his recounting of it made it sound quite a bit worse than it actually had been.

Harry examined the bandages and flexed his hand, as Katie and the other two studied. The older Gryfindor looked up from the ashes, "Hey aren't you supposed to be working on that essay for McGonnagal?" He was, as a matter of fact. His current progress was... less than what he wanted right now, still he had time especially considering _most_ the other first year gryfindors hadn't started their essay yet. They were supposed to be writing on the application, and understanding transfiguration.

"So how is the hand doings? We could go to the hospital wing?" Katie remarked.

He growled, "It doesn't heal, I've tried," and he had, but every once and a while it started bleeding again, but it didn't interfere with his spellcasting, or his movements it just hurt from time to time. He lit the old bandages on fire, and watched them burn. "Fire is second nature to me of course. Its emotional component, and the understanding of it is necessary to creating it." He remarked. "Its much simpler than earth, or metal creation, in fact fire is one of the simplest things to make." Nearly everything can be made to burn after all.

"So if I can reliably make fire you'll teach me how to..."

Harry flicked his hand and blasted the shore line with a barrage of fire darts. "Yes, I'm sure when you eventually get it I'll teach you something that actually can be used in fighting." That was about the time Daphne set her sleeve on fire, Katie rushed forward to tackle her in an attempt to douse the fire, while Harry reached towards the lake and sent a large spray of lake water at her. This of course ended up soaking the both of them. He went back to working on his notebook, "Oh and obviously fire can be used to dry off." Katie glared at him, "She's getting there though."

"Wait can't you create water?"  
Harry looked up, she'd been reading his notebooks again, "Yes, but if you'd kept reading creating an element raw wastes energy compared to using a source, or even pulling it out of the air."

"But we're creating fire."  
"And fire is easy to make." He responded as he flicked a finger, "Fire is easy, and normally you don't have a choice, the same with lightning." And obviously with acid as well, this was just the way things were. Still they were all making headway, admittedly Li was doing a bit better than these two, but then she could have just been one of those closet pyromaniacs he was always Vernon rant about hearing in the muggle news... oh wait Vernon was normally talking about him, that was actually kind of concerning. "Why don't you two go grab Li." He suggested, even though it wasn't really a suggestion. He wasn't concerned but a fire in a castle seemed a really bad idea, in his opinion. After all Harry had yet to get to the usefulness of the flame freezing charm in his supplementary charms book that he'd purchased a month earlier. He looked down at his notebook, Harry really should have been working on his transfiguration essay. "AND DON"T BRING ANYONE ELSE!" He shouted as they were walking off. With that he glanced at his notes again, right water pressure, fun. Power slipped out and drew the water into a floating cone shape, apply the speed to the water and forcing it into a tight spread was a bit more tricky. It was much simpler just to throw lots of water around, but that wasn't as useful. He'd never had much interest in water, but it did have its uses. At high enough pressure water could sheer through steel, and that was impressive, it also hurt.

He took the time to add a few more notes, before they announced, "We're back,"  
"What part of don't bring anyone else didn't you hear?" That had been the advantage, Daphne's friend Tracey had no interest in learning this stuff, or at least hadn't expressed any interest. Su Li didn't seem to be the sharing type.

"Relax oh burning wrathful one," The twins intoned together. George stepped forward, "we come bringing lunch," he paused letting his brother step up beside him, "And drinks." Fred added, "from the ever merry Hogwarts Kitchen." They finished together.

Harry realized as a matter of fact yes he was actually hungry. "I suppose you can stay." The food was good.  
"Sorry chappie, Brother Percy is going on and on about the scuffle between the firsties again." Fred remarked with some annoyance, to which Harry could understand.

Percy's ranting on was annoying, Katie agreed with him on that, and well neither Daphne or Su Li were Gryfindors so they couldn't weigh in on just how annoying Percy Weasley was. Ron was the other Weasley who becoming insufferable, but more because he and Malfoy were constantly picking fights with each other. Percy had jumped down his younger brother's throat for the interhouse fighting. Percy wasn't helping especially with prefect status, especially the way he lorded it, or tried to at least, over the gryfinndors.

"Speaking of Firsties you have the upcoming flying lessons." At Harry's blank look Fred clapped him on the shoulder, "Oh come on man don't tell me you aren't looking forward to that, it's like the greatest thing you first years have on the schedule before quiditch season."

Katie perked up, "When are the trials?"  
Thats right Katie had said she wanted to try out for the team, something about chasing, or chaser for the team, Harry hadn't been paying attention. Quiditch was just a magical sport played on a broom. Harry didn't get this whole flying on the broom, that and the brewing potions in cauldrons...

"Well Hennet is done this year," Fred grunted annoyed, "so we'll definitely need not two chasers, and a seeker this year. Its next week if you're interested,"

Harry looked up, "Why is Hennet done?"

"Ah well... He's picking up his ancient runes studies, he's a sixth year and all. Got his big nasty exams coming up next year." George remarked, "Team's down three players since Charlie graduated last year too. He was playing seeker, and captain too. Wilson, our other chaser was, Alicia, who was subbing last year is a good choice though."

Runes... well that was interesting. He'd been meaning to look into that, which was why he'd asked around about introduction to runes in the bookstores in the alley. He hadn't made much progress he had way too much stuff to do most the time. Harry bit into a scone, this was actually pretty good. It took a minute for him to find his fire notebook.

"Don't suppose the beating Slytherin gave us last year didn't help, it was Charlie's last year and Slytherin crushed us."  
"Thats why we've got to win this year, brother mine." George stated, before helping himself to the food. "besides Slytherin's going to need even more new players than we are."

"So any guesses why the third floor corridor is off limits, George and I were going to eh do a little bit of looking around, you know for good fun."

"Perfect change from trying to sneak into and having a look around the Forbidden Forrest."  
Katie laughed, "Doesn't the groundskeeper keep running you two away from there?" Harry flicked a page, and traced a finger and flicked another page. He turned the book towards the three, this convincing them to figure things out wasn't working, and Daphne had just set her robes on fire. "Whats this,"  
"Analysis from three years ago,"  
She looked up, "This isn't your handwriting," Su remarked.

"No its Sam's," Harry was the slightest bit annoyed sounding. He'd been burned at the time from working on another project, the fire that had did the burning had retarded his healing enough to prevent him from fixing his hands for several weeks. He'd spent most that summer unable to fucking write.

-scene break-

Bank robberies happened damn it... If Harry heard one more thing about Gringotts getting broken into he was going to blast someone, not something, someone. What was so impressive about breaking into a bank, big deal. Geez he could understand Gringotts sending out that letter weeks ago, but everyone was still prattling on about it. The girls had gotten the hang of starting fires, and didn't look like they'd immolate themselves anytime soon, which meant he finally had some peace and quiet.

Still if the talk wasn't about Gringotts it was about the fighting between certain Slytherins, and Gryffindors. The only benefit to that was the first years only had potion classes with their Slytherin counterparts, the class was two days from now on monday morning. Or rather that was supposed to be the norm the exception would be this Thursday when the Flying lessons, the ones Fred and George had brought up, were to be held. Malfoy loved to go on and on about how great a flyer he was, dealing with that would be unbearable come the lesson.

He reached over for his pen, ah well he was safe up on Gryffindor tower well and away from the idiots going on about flying around on brooms. He certain didn't seem like he was going to learn anything about the Dark Arts in Quirrel's class, and his text. On the one hand his books didn't even mention dark elves, on the other they did confirm the existence of vampires, even if all he got was a tiny little paragraph on them, and some reference to a treaty. The entry on werewolves though was much more fulfilling a read. So still he now had a little more information on werewolves, though still pretty in the dark on vampires.

"Oy there you are." The red head yawned and stretched, "well Fred owes me for winning the bet," As George was quick to explain this early saturday morning, he and his brother were pranksters. More to the point the twins were in the process of planning their first major prank. Not that Harry had any part in planning that. No the reason George was bringing this up was because... "Well Ron has been going on and on about that Malfoy prick, and well dear old mum sent a letter, seeing as Percy sent a letter to her yesterday after the fight, and well Fred and I got her letter," To put a long story short the Weasleys' mother was furious about Ron's misbehavior, and for some reason was blaming it, or seemed to be, on the twins. The problem was Ron was a first year, and the twins weren't, and Percy couldn't be hovering over Ron twenty four seven. This left George and Fred with a choice how best to keep ronnikins in line, or rather out of trouble so they could plan their pranks in peace.

Harry gave him a plank look, "Are you serious?"

"Well I know Ron might be a bit of an annoyance we just need you to keep him and Malfoy from starting a riot between the first years, or you know just blast Malfoy into a wall, that'd work too. Just don't let Percy catch you. Its only for the week when you've got classes, just till Friday morning when the prank is for, promise"

Normally Harry would decline, but there was one other piece to this. Keeping Ron from causing a mess would keep their annoying prefect brother from carrying on about inter house fighting, and the shame of it all, which would be worth it. "Its just until Friday Morning."  
"Yeah you can stop, say after Transfiguration class on Thursday, if Ron wants to cause a scene in Flying let him we'll have our prank ready by then. We'll all get a good laugh come Friday morning, eh?" George remarked. "You eaten yet?"

"I was going to ask you to show me where the kitchens were," Harry remarked.

"I can do that now if you want,"

It wasn't like Harry had anything better to. To be honest that was the one of the few things he missed from being in the muggle world the Great Hall didn't furnish coffee, and Harry was used to Coffee in the mornings, the caffeine really helped getting by with only a few hours of sleep.

-scene break-

The Kitchen didn't have coffee as it turned out, which was unpleasant. By the time monday morning rolled around Harry was going through caffeine withdrawal. The dark haired boy wizard slumped into his chair, tea was helping but he was still jittery. Harry flicked through the appendix as he waited for the class to start. Snape seemed to be lurking in his office before class.

"Don't start shit," Harry had told the red head, "we don't need Snape jumping down our throats." Which strictly speaking was completely true, Percy had already gone on about threatening to go straight to McGonnagal if 'they stepped a toe out of line again'. Personally Harry thought he was full of shit, but McGonnagal's policy, from asking around, or rather listening in, was one of no nonsense. She had said as much during the first transfiguration class, and it was the first week of full classes. Still it'd be Friday that really showed how classes were going to play out, there schedules made that much clear.

Snape in what seemed to be his usual fashion came billowing out of his office like a bat out of hell, "Hmm I see you all seem to have made it," He commented tersely, "We will not have a repeat of Friday, am I clear?" The potions master growled, "I expect that should any of you have the sense to notice your classmates endangering themselves, and by extension everyone else you are to intercede immediately." Snape then took the time to present an impromptu lecture on the importance of following instructions in order that they were presented. "With what should be obvious out of the way," He pressed on, "We move on to today's potion lesson, "

Today's lesson as it turned out to be as equally mundane application as Fridays, in this case a basic potion for soothing stomach aches. Apparently it tasted positively foul, or so his book commented in any case. Given half the shit that was required the foul taste actually made sense, Harry considered taking time to cut up the root called for in the ingredients.

Snape was already yelling at people... apparently Neville wasn't the only one of Gryfinndor having problems with potions, right now Snape was berating Lavender, and Parvati for some mistake or another, Harry couldn't really tell.

Daphne slid the plate of prepared ingredients over, "Weasley is working with Longbottom."  
"I saw," Harry commented.

She nudged him, "Shouldn't you watch them?" He nudged his bag that was sitting in his chair. "What?"  
"Kinetic Shield enchanted bag in the event they blow something up when I'm not watching," which wasn't actually what it had originally been intended to... he'd originally empowered the bag for Dudley to use for a punching bad before he considered the other practical benefits of it. The fact remained the heavy leather bag had its uses. "And I am checking on them." Harry checked the instructions, "Lower the heat just a bit," Harry cast a look over his shoulder,

Ron didn't seem to have any aptitude in potions, but he wasn't horrible at it either, so for the moment both he and Neville were doing alright. Harry liked explosions, but only when they were far away from him.

-scene break-

As it turned out Neville, and Ron made a decent pair for potions, meaning they didn't blow anything up, which didn't actually stop Snape from breathing down their necks but it did mean that the class hadn't been a repeat of Friday. Monday's defense against the Dark Arts class after lunch had been more boring than anything. There was no fighting in Quirell's class, just the teacher stuttering, and a lot of dry reading.

Tuesday's Charms class had a bit more of a practical component, which was more than he could say for Thursday's Charms, and Transfiguration classes, not that anyone had been up for practical spellwork after Astronomy had run late throwing everyone off their game. Which presented them to their current situation. McGonnagal had been kind enough to collect their essays, and then let them leave, with a generous helping of homework for the weekend of course.

Technically his agreement with George was now finished, but it still probably wasn't thee best idea to let Malfoy and Ron carry on like they were as everyone waited for Flying lessons to start. "are they really having this argument?"

"So it seems," Harry remarked,

"You're parents were wizards though," One of Gryffindor's muggleborns remarked, "I got the impression all wizard kids rode brooms." He commented,  
"I don't care about flying," he responded, I'm keeping my feet on the ground when I can avoid it certainly flying on a broom counts as avoidable.

Their professor for the flying lessons had amazing timing as it turned out. Madame Hooch showed up just before the majority of Slytherin and Gryffindor boys decided to start forming up in order to come to blows. Hooch was not pleased at all, and ordered both houses to separate and knock off such shenanigans before she called both their heads of houses, which would have been unpleasant to say the least. "Now class today will cover the basics of broom flight." She announced before marching the lot of them over to the two lines of brooms arrayed on the ground... wait they were facing each other... that really didn't seem like the best idea. There was also the fact the brooms were old and some of them looked kind of frail, all of them had certainly seen better days.

Madame Hooch as it turned out, was rather impatient as a teacher, and quickly ordered them to tell the brooms 'up.' The first try got some results from the class, enough to merit a good. Its still took a few tries for everyone to be able to get their brooms to rise to the occasion. After that the hawkish woman took a few minutes to show, and make sure, everyone was riding the broom properly, and how to grip. Things rapidly went down hill from there when she'd started trying to prep them on actual flying.

Draco started things, which was presumably why things escalated as they did, "Did you see that fat idiot," He cackled after Hooch had taken Neville away to the Hospital Wing.  
"Shut up!" Ron snapped stepping forward, starting a repeat of the pre class standoff.

"Will you two stop posturing and fight."  
"What?"  
"You're embarrassing the House," Harry didn't really have a reason to give a damn about the house but some people did."Ronald, beat Malfoy or shut up." Harry growled looking up from his pages, "And you Malfoy either blast Ron or pipe down you're making Slythering look bad." Personally he didn't care they were idiots, and since they were both 'purebloods' they probably knew somekind of magic.

For a minute Harry actually thought Malfoy was about to pull his wand, and apparently so did half the class. It was a mad scramble as people shuffled for their own wands, then the first spell went off. The clash was mostly sparks, and shrieking.

Harry had to block once, raising the opaque kinetic shield against a minor fire curse that had flown wide from the scuffle. It'd lasted a good ten minutes before the brawl had settled down.

"I thought you would have gotten involved." Blaise remarked.

He shrugged from his own place amongst the people who hadn't actually gotten in the fight, people from both sides. It'd been funny to watch, and besides if he was truthful it'd have happened sooner or later.

When Hooch got back she'd been furious at the apparent fight, she knew it'd happened, just not the specifics and no body was willing to step foward. They'd gotten their flying lessons rescheduled for early next week, and a loud lecture, plus the loss of some house points, but in the end well it'd been funny to watch. While Harry didn't really look forward to Friday classes but at least it'd be a mostly free weekend. So far the first full week of classes was going well.

-scene break-

-Chapter conclusion—

Helltanz's notes: Yay for world building, and this handles flying lessons too. The world building, and foreshadowing is necessary for later parts of the story, anyway book 1 has about 9 chapters left in it, or if you prefer words (according to my outlining) about another 50k. I kind of hope to have this finished by next year. Book 2, the Chamber of Secrets analogue, will mark the breakaway from canon more indepth.


	12. Chapter 12 Mars Bright

Chapter 12

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: I probably go back clean up and rewrite the first chapter, and probably the second one as well. I feel I may have over done it with the purple prose in the beginning.

Also for the time being this chapter is unbetaed and written during a period of sleep deprivation I'm requesting readers ignore minor typos.

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

-Chapter begin -

The Hogwarts staff meeting room was located in the central portion of the castle. Its lack of windows, coupled with the schedule of staff meetings generally meant that it wasn't used much. As the room was deep inside the main structure, and obviously did lack windows, it depended entirely on magical lighting. The room itself was rather plain, its only central feature was the large wooden table which had last been replaced in the 1880s.

Dumbledore settled into his worn high back, and well padded, chair for the first proper staff meeting of the semester. Truth be told he normally relished these first meetings, this year however had the potential prove different than the usual fare of pranks. For the most part Hogwarts avoided the political problems that had plagued life outside its walls since Voldemort's fall.

There was an atangonistic relationship between the blood purists, and muggleborns, but it'd never gotten anywhere close to the level it had been during Voldemort's reign of terror. In fact schools throughout the country had largely been exempt from attacks. Hogwarts was of course the premiere school in the British Isles, but there were several smaller others ranging from dedicated trade schools to simply small regional that catered to the more insular wizarding communities; such as the school in Wales. Hogwarts though was the school that had the most name recognition. It was part of the reason he was criticized by the blood purists for choosing to admit as many powerful muggleborns to Hogwarts as he could.

"The Longbottom Boy is a menace I want him out of my potions class," Severus was saying loudly across the staff room. "Before he gets us all killed."

McGonnagal gave an undignified snort, "You said the same thing about mister Potter."  
"Potter is a menace, but at least if he's going to kill the class it won't be because he accidentally blew the classroom up!" Snape growled.

Dumbledore looked up, and tapped his wand getting their attention. "Minerva, Severus please there is no need for this. I'm sure the boy is just nervous, many new students are."

"He's nearly blown me up twice, if I wasn't absolutely sure he was just incompetent I'd think it was intentional." Snape retorted. "and as for Potter at least he and the rest of them can at least follow directions." Which to tell the truth was more than he had expected from the majority of the first year Gryfinndors. "Then there is this fighting between the first years, if this isn't nipped in the bud I believe it could spread to the upper years."

Dumbledore frowned, well this brought him back to what he'd been thinking about, "I see, then the matter of blood purity is becoming an issue."  
"I don't even think its that when it come to the First Years fighting." Severus commented. "Potter isn't a blood purist, and neither is Weasley boy, but neither of them get along. Draco is taking towards his father's view, but that isn't the problem. Put simply if this does spread to the upper years the purity issue could become the issue that dominates this. Potter is teaching." Snape proclaimed exclamating the statement by standing up.

The headmaster raised an eyebrow, "You're sure about this Severus?"  
"Of course I am, I wouldn't bring it up otherwise, if this escalates..."  
Filius finally spoke up, "I disagree a Potter hasn't invoked a Vendetta in over three hundred years, I checked the last time they did was before the Statute of Secrecy. Him teaching other students is not neccessarily a bad thing."

"What are we looking at him teaching though?" Snape groused, "Did you see Diagon Alley, stone doesn't melt easily, or maybe you saw the Platform?" Snape had a valid point an esclation to riotous behavior between Gryfinndor and Slytherin's upper years would be messy. Worse even than the esclation that his own seventh year had seen.

Dumbledore frowned, but allowed Hooch to speak up, "I don't know who was involved in the fight between the First Years for certain, but it definitely started before Mr. Longbottom broke his wrist, there is something very wrong with the first years. I have rescheduled the flying class for the Gryfindors and Slytherins to next Tuesday."

"That should be sufficent I think, Quirnus perhaps you would like to add something?"

The man with the turban on his head shuddered looking up, "Oh no sir, the children are most well behaved in my class, I haven't had any issue with tomfoolery. Headmaster." Professor Sprout agreed with Quirrel the firt years tended to be well behaved in their herbology class as well. McGonnagal also couldn't attest to any misbehavior though for completely different reasons.

"I do not want our first month of class to ruin ten years of peace. Perhaps it would be best if we arranged a gathering for the first years to encourage Hogwarts unity." In truth he had been after the fight at the train station that Harry was taking an increasingly traditional stance, turning away from more than two hundred years of progressivism that had marked the Potter Family. It certainly had looked that way, it had looked like he'd been lying in wait for the Death Eaters, waiting for them to attack. "In my belief this should probably be something outdoors, after all a dance wouldn't be appropriate for the youngsters." That and of course Hogwarts already had a Yule ball annually for those in fourth year and above.

"A quiditch game might be possible, but at the same time team tryouts are in a few weeks, I don't think it'd be good to get their hopes up only for older children to make it onto the house teams." Professor Sprout commented.

Filius frowned, and an obstacle course might end up backfiring. Likewise many of the more accademic past times were not likely to find much support amongst the younger years, and dueling was most certainly out of the question.

-scene break-

Harry settled back in the grass reading a well worn book, finally he was able to get some peace and quiet, the truth was he'd snuck out Gryfindor Common Room to avoid the ruckus certain authority figures were raising, and by certain he meant Percy. The truth was the Weasley twins first prank of the year had gone off without complication at breakfast Friday morning. Coupled with the fight at flying class had set Percy off something fierce. He'd ranted on and on Thursday night, even attempted to bar exits to the common room so he could rant and rave. Friday night had only compounded it. His brothers, that was to say Fred and George, made it worse by immediately pranking him when the first opportunity made itself available.

He noticed the shift of magic, which was what gave he new guest away, that and the spiders he'd let loose... well the once that hadn't gotten eaten by the birds of the forrest obviously.

"You should not be here human,"  
Harry looked at him, it, no definitely was a him. A centaur, geez it'd been a while since he'd even thought about one much less seen one. "And why is that?" 'He', since it was definitely male, was tall easily breaching two meters at his shoulder... his human shoulder that was.

"Pluto makes itself clear," The Centaur remarked, "and Mars is growing bright."  
It took him a minute to remember Pluto's alignment, which again was more because he hadn't had a talk like this in at least a year and a half. "Death and War." He remarked after a minute.  
"Pluto is the judge, and judgement follows with all conflict." The Centaur remarked, "You should consider the place of all the celestial kingdoms, are you not influenced by Mercury and Saturn? These woods are no place for a magician to fight, and you are much to young for that."

Harry's teeth set in a grit, "Death promises no reprieve for children."

"And you still call the Children of the Dusk friends, human."  
Of course the Centaur would know that, maybe the Centaur clans talked maybe it was the marks, he didn't have a way to be sure, but the fact was he knew. To tell the truth he really wished that centaurs wouldn't fucking talk so vaguely. "What do you want centaur?"

"Mars is growing bright human, you know conflict brews." The centaur remarked. "Your kind grasps only its petty struggles, and not the warning given by the stars. Can you comprehend the fates the stars layout for us."

Harry hated astrology... he hated the class, and he hated the planets, but it did tend to have a point occasionally maybe, not that he'd ever admit that so easily aloud. "I've been fighting since summer." He commented, "and it'll probably get worse,"  
"Mars does grow brighter every night." The centaur agreed.

Geez would he stop saying that, okay conflict and fights, and fighting he'd gotten the message already. Hagrid came tromping through the tree, "Oh there you are Harry, and good day to you as well Philo." Hagrid was taller still than the Centaur, and more than that significantly more stout, to put bluntly were Hagrid not so overly jovial he we would be even scarier... the crossbow didn't help things obviously. The weapon was large, and quite lethal looking by itself never mind the vicious looking bolt with the barbed arrowhead that it presently was loaded with. "Still Harry I have to chase the Weasley twins away from here often enough, forrest isn't really a place for students to be alone. Not that you're to be spreading it about of course, but I can completely understand coming out into the Forest did the same thing when I was your age." Hagrid continued on. "Was absolutely my favorite place to be when I didn't have class." The half giant reminsced fondly of his school days, he'd never thought it ill of Tom Riddle until Tom had become Voldemort truth be told, Tom had just been wrong about Aragog that had been his belief. Then Tom had grown up to be the Dark Lord, and started all that killing business.

Philo the centaur had other things on his mind. Centaur clans rarely took time to communicate with each other, but when new ones appeared it was noticed. More importantly word got around when an existing clan formalized ties with a wizard, and then told of another clan. It was thus also noticed when their wizard-friend had a friend who was allied with the Children of the Dusk. These things were noticed... and Mars was growing oh so bright, and the wizard was right Pluto could in fact be death as well as judge. What was written in the stars were bad omens.

Harry had other things on his mind like what to eat for dinner, he'd decided he was just going to swing by the kitchens, there wasn't any sense eating in the great hall, and it'd let him side step Percy as well so a double win. There was also the fact he could eat, read, and relax all at the same time without distraction if he got food from the Kitchen.

"Oh Harry thats right I was going to invite you for tea when I got done here in the forrest," Hagrid remarked, "Truth be told I would have done it sooner but I had to do something for Dumbledore, which kept me busy."

Tea actually sounded very nice, and he could use the caffiene to tell the truth. He needed to get coffee soon. He was too damn used to drinking it in the mornings, which made getting up without it at his usual time difficult.

-scene break-

"So where'd you go?" Katie asked him as dropped his bag on the table,

He glanced up before setting his food on the table as well, "Well I went into the forrest," The twins shouted encourgingly at him, WELL DONE!, "talked to an astrology focused centaur, apparently Mars is getting bright, so war is coming... apparently. Then I went and had tea."  
"With the centaur?"  
"No with Hagrid, he was there too." Harry responded. "But Mars is brightening so thats apparently worth repeating a dozen times." He commented,

She looked interested, did girls really find this divination stuff interesting, "Wast there anything else?"

"and Pluto is shining, so judgement and death obviously. Then there was something about Mercury and Saturn." Harry sat down in the chair by the fire. "That was about everything the centaur felt like saying,"

"Pluto can be wealth though,"  
She did actually a point on that Pluto was affiliated with Hades, and as such... "So spoils of war then if I see treasure I will make sure to collect it," He commented blandly. Right treasure... uh huh, which reminded him to get back to rereading. Even if the centaur was right, which was possible, probably likely given fighting was always a potential occurence, it didn't really matter much...

"Centaurs, and treasure, didn't figure them for the type." George interjected abruptly, "Our brother Bill does a fair bit of cursebreaking for Gringotts, and he's never said anything about Centaurs building treasure hoards."

From everything Harry understood of the magiks employed by the Centaurs they relied heavily on divination, but that was not to say they were defenseless. Harry had never learned the specifics Sam hadn't been interested in sharing, and Harry had little patience for stargazing.

From everything the wizards knew, if they bothered to check their own history, Centaurs had in fact had treasure hoards, but modern, centaur, culture had largely abandonned this following the collapse of Ancient Greece. The transition to isolated clans, and new social trends meant the Centaurs no longer built such encampments to contain wealth in gold.

"Well dear brother William does like to spend his time having fun in the sun," Seeing the lack of knowledge on precisely what their brother did Fred elaborated, "You see our brother Bill is a cursebreaker for Gringotts. He deals with things like wards, and curses intended to defend places long after they've been forgotten. He does a lot of work in Egypt,"  
George continued for his brother while Fred took a minute to help himself to the tea, "After Hogwarts he started working for Gringotts branch in Egypt." That was interesting Harry hadn't actually considered that the wizarding world might still be recovering things from long dead civilizations, that definitely bore looking into. "He does a lot of poking around tombs, and Egyptian temples buried in the sand."  
"According to wizarding history," A certain bushy haired first year interjected, "The egyptians and Mesopotamians were amongst the first true magic using civilizations to arise, like in the muggle world ancient Sumeria, Egypt, China, and India all had flourishing magic using populations thanks to the natural conditions of the region." Hermione continued.

Fred, and George wrinkled their noses, "Yeah Ancient Egyptian wizards, we're not stupid," and had kind of lived in the wizarding world their whole life, and it was their brother. Their opinion on the topic of ancient Egyptian wizards reflected the norm for magical Britain... that was to say the ancient Egyptians had been mean bastards, but ultimately a lot of the British wizarding world thought of them as a long gone curiousity. The truth was though Hogwart didn't even both to cover ancient magical societies for another few years.

Add to that of course that thousands of years had passed, and very little other than the ruins intrepid wizards, and the goblins, sought out to exploit. Modern Egypt for all they claimed about their great forebearers used primarily Arab derived magic, and before that had become dominant had largely already switched to the magical forms of the Romans. The sad truth for those who cared was that most true ancient egyptian magic had largely died out before the Roman Empire had dominated.

That was how conquest worked after all a more powerful culture moved in and took over, even the Chinese hadn't been exempt when the Mongols had conquered, but over all they'd changed the least. China had managed to retain the bulk of their ancient forms of magic. To contrast India's history meant their own magic had altered the most of the two surviving ancient magic users. True Ancient Egyptian magic, and the magiks of Ancient Sumer were today effectively extict. That was just the way things were.

Fred and George didn't know much about any of the Four Ancient Magical Cultures, Bill had always been tight lipped, apparently, about Egyptian Magic, and kept his notes carefully stowed away, something about it being too dangerous. That wasn't to say the twins hadn't seen them, just that they hadn't understood them. The two Weasleys also had the sense not to mess with what they had found.

Harry was curious, he had immediately know that the wards around the Potter properties were... less than passive, which put them in strict contrast with his self developed wards, which revolved around the senses, and hiding. This information had immediately forced him to reconsider his priorities in wards, especially as their was a whole wide wizarding world out there.

"So yeah where Bill works in,"

"And lives in" George interjected abruptly

Fred nodded along, "Egypt, our brother Charlie is working in Romania, apparently he also wanted to get out of the country,"  
"Not that we have any idea why that could be," George remarked sarcastically. "It couldn't be his job lets him avoid our mum, and make a decent wage."

Thats right the twins were rather annoyed about the whole Mrs. Weasley sending that letter the school had been talking about after breakfast... Harry hadn't been there so he wasn't sure quite what the issue was about a screaming letter that flew under its own power.

-scene break-

Sunday had proven equally boring, which meant that they'd be heading to class per normal tomorrow, which meant of course meant Gryfinndor's usual potions with Slytherin, and then later on Defense against the Dark Arts. As expected Snape took no time to criticize any imprefection where it was possible... not that Harry would ever admit he was glad his new set of potions ingredients had arrived this morning, which of course had spared him any further criticism of of the ingredients he was using. It, of course, didn't excuse those who were still using ingredients from Slugs & Jiggers Apothecary, or other Apothecaries, which by some strange power Snape could identify with littl effort, that didn't meet Snape's standard of what was suitable.

In any event despite Snape's criticism, unfounded or not, the class proceeded well enough to avoid explosions at least. That much atleast kept them from beind distracted too much from the class, in fact the entire class manged to avoid any accidents at all for an early monday morning class. From what they'd heard at lunch their good fortune hadn't passed onto the Hufflepuff Ravenclaw third year class that had also had potions that morning, and apparently set Snape into a terrible mood.

Lunch itself had been a standard affair, Harry had gone, and eaten, if only because they had Defense immediately afterwards. The meal had been standard fare for Hogwarts, but Harry appreciated the tea in any case, the caffiene was what he needed, and truthfully he'd yet to devise a method of insuring a supply of coffee... the Dursley's bought coffee and used an electronic coffee pot... a large coffee pot. It had actually been one of the few thing Harry had liked at the Dursley's house. Damn it.

Defense against the Dark Arts was held in the same room as it had been for the previous classes. The truth was it was boring, and the rain outside only made it more so. Quirrel's lecture was boring, at least McGonnagal transfiguration class for the first years proved interesting Quirrel's rambling on while stuttering couldn't even manage that. The truth was Quirrel couldn't even stay on topic, or didn't seem to be able to make up his mind on what he wanted to lecture on, but at least he didn't quiz people on his personal experiences... that in itself was a plus.

Harry traced a finger up the page and folded down his place in reading, still at least this miserable lecture was over and done with for the day.

-scene break-

Charms, followed by Wednesday's classes, and then Thursday had all been uneventful up until McGonagal started on the essays. It had not been pleasant to listen too, Snape at least was outright malicious, McGonagal was true neutral she gave credit where it was deserved, and flambaed you when you had screwed up, and the First year Gryfinndor's by and large had not done well. On the plus side rumors in between classes informed them most other first years hadn't either... that didn't actually improve most people's moods, accept those who were willing to accept such reasoning.

You would think though after the fight, whether they had proof or not was irrelevant, they'd have had the Gryffindors and Slytherins, have different flying classes. Instead they were stuck with the Slytherins again, which meant a bunch of both sides were glaring at each others from across the imaginary line of separation.

"They're idiots,"  
"Yes," Harry agreed not looking up,"They are, but maybe its better this way."  
"Are you going to stop them?"  
"Why would I?" He asked the Slytherin, it was probably better they just went ahead and fought it out. That logic certainly seemed to work for Dudley at school, so if both groups fought, and there was a clear winner the loser should just admit they'd lost... to quote Vernon 'a sound thrashing will fix 'em'. Obviously throwing fire balls at the problem fixed problems... well enough... "They can work this out,"

She brought up her more pressing point, there were kind a lot of them, and not all the girls were sitting out, and that meant a lot of first years all told. If Hooch didn't decide to reign things in a fight might actually have started. Once again she instructed them to command their brooms 'Up'. This time nobody fell off like Neville had, but then everybody managed to avoid shooting off out of control like he had to.

Flying on a broom was certainly a new experience for Harry. The feel was strange, but then that was probably to be first proper lesson in flying covered the supposed basics, there was a thrill to flying. Adrenaline was the obvious scientific explanation, but it didn't change the fact that flying was genuinely fun. Katie... and heaven forbid both Draco and Ron had been right about flying, it was fun.

Harry prized being right, being wrong stung his pride. It was why he studied, he didn't like being ignorant, and more importantly didn't like being wrong. Still while he didn't like it, he did admit, to himself at least, that he'd been wrong. Flying through the air was fun. Harry grimaced and leaned forward in irritation... which resulted in the broom suddenly nose diving. He abruptly forced the broom to correct causing Hooch to start shouting irritably something about flying safety, or safely or something it was kind of hard to hear her properly. That was something about McGonnagal and the racing broom. He turned the Cleansweep model 4 and oriented it towards the ground and descended, quickly, to continued irritation of his flying teacher. Madame Hooch was thoroughly annoyed, apparently flying was dangerous... obviously. Still no harm no foul.

Even so all in all Gryfindor and Slytherin's first complete flying lesson had went much better.

-scene break-

"Are they serious?" Someone shouted.

IT was the third week of September now, the last week of classes had went fairly well. "What are they on about?" George questioned looking up from a last minute bit of homework.

"Well Wood said Quidditch tryouts would be this saturday." Fred commented still focusing on his own homework.

"They don't sound like its about quidditch tryouts." Katie commented, who was looking forward to the tryouts come saturday. "Do we have a seeker yet?"

Fred looked up, "We've got guys who want to play, whether Aaron got the fingers for it," He grunted, "since he's got the best broom and we know he can ride a broom. Its all up on whether he can catch the snitch, if he gets the spot we're good for two years after, but he'll still be the oldest on the team." That wasn't saying much the Gryfindor in question was a year older than Oliver Wood the current captain of the quidditch team.

Harry leafed through his Transfiguration book, even though he didn't have the class until Thursday. The given reason for this was transfiguration was "too difficult" for young wizards and witches to study effectively until they had matured, something about power requirements as well played a factor in it. So they only had the class once a week, and McGonnagal drilled them on theory by making them write essays of parchment. Then after that they had their flying lessons. It was thus that Harry considered Thursday the best of when he had classes. True his first year classes were a bit of a let down, but Thursday was less than the others. Seriously First Year classes were disappointing, and while he had considered sitting in on Katie's classes he had other things he could work on.

"Have you seen this?" Dean demanded approaching them, one of his hands was angled back towards the message board angrily. Harry turned around

In truth he hadn't, whatever it was, it hadn't been posted when he'd left this morning, and he had not actually thought to look at the board when he'd come to the great hall. Whatever it was Dean, one of the principal instigators on the Gryfindor side regarding the conflict with Slytherin's first years, was down right furious, which Harry supposed might be interesting. Harry finished off his tea, "What is it Dean?"

"THIS!" It was only the fact that the Great Hall was already filled with the usual breakfast rucuss that Dean's declaration didn't draw attention beyond most students. Harry couldn't really read the announcement... not with the way Dean had it shoved into his face like it was.

"So you've seen it too."  
For some reason Dean seemed content to assume that the Slytherins all thought the same, or at the least were all united together, which certainly wasn't the case in Gryfindor despite his assertions that it should be, according to his beliefs of course. Harry ignored all of this, had been ignoring Dean, and his friends, proclamations of such since the first fight had broken out with the Slytherin First years. There was no point to it, obviously. Harry took his view of the world quite seriously, even if it was biased. Muggles would have diagnosed it as a mild psych disorder, not very dangerous on its own... of course Harry had magic.

Dean just had a bad experience with Slytherins. He was, like Harry, a half blood raised in the wizarding world. Unlike Harry though Dean hadn't, didn't have practical experience in magic to rely on. That was the problem Draco at least did know a few spells, and so did most the purebloods, particularly those with older siblings. Perhaps luckily that first fight had degenerated into a fist fight.

"Whats going on?"

"The teachers are organizing a get together for the first years,"That wasn't normal, Harry knew, obviously, Katie affirmed as much, which was of course echoed by both Fred and George simultaneously, cutting Daphne off, who was rather testy about that. Being interuptted she waited a minute before continuing, in any event the newly announced affair was supposed to encourage friendly inter house cooperation.

"This will be a blood bath," Harry muttered, "I'm not going, and you shouldn't either." He remarked imperiously. The Gryfindors and Slytherins might have been the main ones fighting, but that didn't stop the more agressive Slytherins, Malfoy, and Nott especially, from picking fights with Ravenclaws, or Hufflepuffs. Harry was exagerating, whether he really intended to be or not was up for debate, but still if a fight broke out it was likely the Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws would probably join in on the resulting brawl... maybe.

"We should probably head to potions."

-Chapter conclusion—

Helltanz's notes: and I'm ending it there and posting its ten minutes till 3 in the morning.

Dark Prince 2 will be updated as soon as I finish the rewrite, so hypothetically the next update for Magic Perhaps? Will probably be in November mid to late November, which will put us at chapter 13 out of 20

Night all.


	13. Chapter 13 October & Halloween

Chapter 13

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: Don't thing much needs to be said... no wait sadly there is. This is fanfiction, this is fanfiction with a plot, but it is fanfiction. Why am I having to bring this up? Certain Fan dumb elements, you people know who you are, seem to have forgotten this. If you don't know what Fan Dumb is go look it up on Tv Tropes. I will write my story along my plot lines, and diverge from canon, this is an AU.

This being said I actually have a plot besides the usual rehash of Book 1, in fact from a story telling perspective book one's "main plot" is not all that imporant to this story. So anyway now that has had to have been said this is chapter 13 I actually get to write interesting scenes that moves the plot along huzzah introduction is done.

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

-Chapter begin -

True to his word, obviously, Harry skipped out on the get together arranged for First Years. It wasn't something people didn't miss, especially Snape who had made sure to take attendance of everyone present. Dumbledore, McGonnagal, and Flitwick also noticed though were distinctly less vocal about those not present. So by the time Monday had rolled around the school was already in a buzz, but that really wasn't the issue right now.

Geez, skip one little school function and its off to the headmaster's office first thing monday morning, what a... the curse was cut short as the gargoyle lept aside. That would take some getting used to. "If you would like Mr. Potter I can have Madame Pomfrey fetch you some salve for the burn,"  
Harry jerked the bandaged hand, "Its fine, I won't need it." The acid had actually eaten through his gloves, which in itself was impressive in hindsight given the magic saturating the gloves, but it had also been painful. Of course that was to be expected, it wasn't the first time.

"If you are quite certain on that Mr. Potter," A voice boomed from the top of the stairs perhaps we should proceed," Dumbledore commented, "Thank you Minerva, I think that should be all. Come along Harry we've much to discuss and I dare say we wouldn't want you to miss out on your first class of the day,"

Dumbledore's office was bizare, and this was by Harry's standards whose work room was a pigsty of scattered parts, papers, random books, pens, and other doodads. Of doodads, and strange trinkets Headmaster Albus Dumbledore's office abounded. Of course to be honest Dumbledore's office was also very nice in all its oddities.

"I do not know this one Albus, and I should know all within Hogwarts walls, tis what the Founders crafted me for." A hat cried from the shelf, even as the wizards, and witches in the portraits flitted about clamoring.

Albus frowned, and sighed, "There there everyone, calm down, settle, settle." He requested calmly, "There we go, thank you. Have a seat if you will Mr. Potter," The old headmaster beckoned calmly walking behind his desk. "Yes well I understandably had wanted to wait a bit before having this concersation, but given things I think it'd be best to go ahead and tell you. You see some years ago professor Trelawny-"

Harry couldn't help himself, the professor's whole long winded method of getting to the point just made him want answers more. "Who?"

"ah right," Dumbledore remarked. "Professor Trelawny is our own divination teacher here at Hogwarts, as I was saying some years ago she made a prophecy," Because right the Centaurs weren't bad enough about trying to predict the future Harry thought, "As you know Voldemort attack your parents' home in Godric's hollow, it was because Voldemort learned of a prophecy that you would be the one to defeat him?"  
Harry looked confused, and to be absolutely fair no amount of a maturity, supernatural power, or attitude makes one quite up for comprehending the events surounding one's partents death when one is only eleven. "I don't follow, if Voldemort believed the prophecy that I'd kill him, why'd he go?" Sure it was cliche for the Dark Lords to go but really wouldn't sending someone else make more sense, "if the Death Eaters were even stronger when he was alive shouldn't he have just sent them?"  
"Ah you see Harry you have the ability to trust others," Dumbledore remarked nodding, "but you see Voldemort doesn't," Once again using the present tense, "the truth of course is Voldemort couldn't trust his Death Eaters, nor did he expect they would succeed," big surprise that was, "So he decided to go himself, your parents' put up an admirable fight, but alas Voldemort proved too strong for them to overcome."

"Still Voldemort died,"  
"Voldemort was defeated, yes, but I digress," Dumbledore continued on, "You must understand Harry after Voldemort's fall we had a few scant years of peace, and we'd started rebuilding, but then then the Death Eaters attacked, but it wasn't like anything during Voldemort's time. The Death Eaters are fractured you see, divided off into their own little camps, vying for influence, and the ministry just doesn't have the ability to, or the willpower for that matter to do something about it."

Well that was always good news to hear wasn't it. "So what then?"

"Voldemort isn't dead Harry, and I think even now he is trying to find a way to return to his corporeal body," He remarked, and Harry blanched, dying was a painful thing, coming out of it alive was worse, "You see you seem mature enough to handle the truth Harry, Voldemort had been delving into dark magic for years, he probably started even before he left Hogwarts, of course I am ashamed to say in those dark days many young people, and not so young delved into such magic for protection, so nothing was done about it. After, after the war of course it was thought that no harm no foul, after all knowledge itself isn't evil. Its just something you should know Harry, Voldemort isn't dead, and certainly you should be very wary of the Death Eaters of course as well. Here within Hogwarts though there should be little concern about the Death Eaters, I know that you voiced such concerns before start of term, and after, but I'm quite confident at present the Death Eaters would be unwilling, and unable to press an attack against the castle. Of course Hogsmeade, the neighboring village may not be quite as safe, so I must urge you not to go about,"

Harry nodded blankly, as of yet he'd had no inclination to visit the wizarding village anyway. Still this discussion was hardly what he'd been expecting when McGonnagal had brought him up here. "So what then exactly? Prophecy is still fufilled, he attacked me he died, he's defeated even if he's still alive afterwards he still lost, and the terms are fuffilled."  
"That may indeed be one way to look at it, a very logical way, but with prophecy its a very finicky and pecuilar branch of magic, and of course more to the point Harry Voldemort may not see it that way." Dumbledore continued reaching for something behind his desk. What he produced was a collection of newspaper clippings, "As I said its quite likely Voldemort got his first taste of dark magic when he was just starting off here at Hogwarts, which he attended during my tenure as the transfiguration professor." Harry could only surmarize it was a graduation photo

"Tell me I'm not related to this guy."  
"Not to my knowledge, well no more than any links to most other major wizarding families," That didn't help the feeling in Harry's gut, "As I was going to say Harry this was Voldemort's graduation photo, brilliant student in nearly everything he studied. During the time though Grindelwald, and his Nazi allies were running amok on the continent, and truthfully here at Hogwarts we didn't have the ability to focus on dark arts being practices, much as I wanted to. Now Harry I want to understand the Dark Arts are a grim and terrible power, and a shortcut not worth it in the long run for all the damage they do."

-scene break-

"So what did Dumbledore want, Harry?" Fred, or was it George, asked after he had made his way back up to Gryfindor tower.

Harry was already rifling through his bag for his book, "Voldemort went to school here back in the day, yeah that was interesting." He made a habit to ignore the flinching at the name, it was stupid, and for the record y interesting he meant positively boring, "and he was there the same time as Hagrid, thats useful information. Still just boring stuff.

"So what are you going to do?" Fred asked,

George shrugged, "Yeah we nicked yah some breakfast too while you were up in the office,"

Harry was hungry... "Don't you have class?"  
"Ah well you see funny story that," Fred remarked,

"Yeah real funny story," George continued, "You see the room apparently is apparently infested," He went on before breaking into laughter, "poor old Quirrel almost feel bad for him."

"Almost,"

Harry looked up from his pen, and book, "Infested with what?"

"Well you see Harry we found these spiders all about in the forest,"  
"Really odd they were," George picked up for his brother, "So eh, we levitated the lot of them up in to a box we enchanted and stowed them somewhere for a boring day."  
"And what do you happen to know today just happened to be boring." Fred commented,

Harry really didn't like were this was going... "what kind of spiders?"  
Fred and George shrugged, "big ones, I mean really big, like the small ones were Lee's tarantula's size and got bigger from there they did. So how was missing out on potions, bet that was a relief?"  
"You said you deposited in quirell's room right."  
"Sure did, shook them up for good measure," George shrugged," Gently of course didn't want to squish any of them while we did the shaking."

Giant spiders, giant most likely magical spiders, Harry's forehead smacked into his palm. "Lets go."

"Wait were we going?"  
"We're going to kill magical spiders," Harry responded, "I have Quirell's defense against the dark arts class at one," and despite how nice it would be to have the day free there was always the possibility that...

Fire was mankind's dearest friend, and could be man's most bitter enemy. George wisely took a step away as the sparks in the fireplace started to grow. "So uh right, whats the plan?"  
"Hope the magic spiders don't infest the rest of the castle,"

"Where are you guys going?" Katie asked dropping bag beside the couch as they were standing up...

Upon arriving though it took all Harry's self control not to just blast everything.

"I swear Harry there weren't this many before, promise mate," Fred remarked gobsmacked, "There was no way there was this many.

Harry flicked a hand the wave of fire rippling out.

"Harry that fire thing how do we do it?" George asked as more the spiders approached, "They're coming,"

For once in the school year Quirrel wasn't a completely useless teach and gave his wand a sweeping hearty wave sending the spiders back... now if only he could stop stammering, and telling everyone to take care, and how poisonous acromantulas were, whatever those were, besides giant poisonous spiders.

There was a roaring cacophony of searing heat, and burning air, and Harry dove to the side as the torrent of uncontrolled fire seared the classroom, "Bloody Hell!"  
Katie dropped to her knees drained, her wand falling loosely. Of all the times to manage something like that, and then be drained afterward. It was the wand that had focused much of the energy needed for that, but Harry had no way of knowing that, he still hadn't gotten a wand.  
"Uh Harry,"  
"Mr. Potter I," Quirrel wasn't stammering, which was actually the weird part, well barely stammering, "I appreciate the help but you and your friends should step back, this might get a little mess- messy."

Giving a look at the purple orb, sickly looking purple orb Harry, Fred, and George didn't need telling twice. Quirrel flicked his wand sending the orb flying into the room, where it started pulling everything towards it. "Oh dear, you might wish to cover your ears." The professor squawked, slamming the door behind him.

Katie groaned, "uhg my head."

There was a massive tremor from the other side of the door, coupled with a thundercrash, and sickening splat, and then it was quiet.

"I'll call the house elves, get them to tidy this up eh, you children run," Quirrel remarked, "And uh thanks again, I suppose I should hand out house points... or maybe talk to Dumbledore about some kind of school award or something... yes that would be nice I think."

Harry took a step back, eying the door, "Right... come one," He grabbed Katie's sleeve,

"Wonder what Quirrel used,"

"Bloodly awesome it must have been." Fred agreed.

"Come one," Harry repeated, it was impressive what ever it'd been, "How'd you do that?" He asked,  
"What do you mean I just wanted them to burn,"  
"Then start doing it more often, and with more control over your magic."

"Its bloody impressive, though," George interjected,

"You did a nice job burning the whole room up." Fred agreed, "and we're going to get a plaque out of it. Percy will have a coniption fit when he hears about this,"  
"Right he will."

And Percy's brothers were probably right, Fred and George getting a special service award from the school, and not him. It would definitely be something that Percy would spaz out about.

-scene break-

The last bit of the month though had been boring enough. Outside of Quirrel, and Snape's classes everything was normal. Hagrid had invited everyone down for tea, going so far as to apologize for the acromantulas. Harry wondered if the spiders were Hagrid's familiars but hadn't asked the half giant.

Katie had gotten a little better with fire, and it had sparked some competition off amongst the rest of them. Still she hadn't been able to recreate that fiery blaze, still there was definite improvement. Still classes had really canged much, and it seemed like things were settling down for the Halloween feast, the only who was up tight was Snape; who seemed hellbent on picking up the slack of everyone else who was actually loosening up.

Harry leaned against the tree, appreciative of his heavy bomber jacket's thick layers, it was cold, and wet, mostly from melted frost, and snow. They hadn't bothered waiting for Katie to get done with practice, even if most of them had shown up for the actual tryouts. That had been... interesting Harry supposed was the word. Harry had been more interested in what Flitwick had said about more precise control, something McGonagal had broached on as well. It was interesting way to tweak his spells. Transfiguration was steadily taking more and more effort but the tighter controls were interesting.

"Perhaps we should head to the feast"  
Harry looked up from his stone work, "Practice should be done with I suppose," He grunted eyeing the decorated castle, "We might as well go ahead." It was thus they started walking towards the school.

"I've been meaning to bring it up Harry, we need to talk about Nott,"  
Harry glanced up, this was really not what he wanted to be hearing, "What about him? Are him and Malfoy still going at it?" It'd been going on since not long after school started, and Daphne hadn't brought it up immediately, but it seemed the first years were all vying for influence. Ten years ago Voldemort had died, it was his year and everyone saw this as an important year, monumental. It'd even been in the paper this morning about the anniversary of Voldemort's fall, not everyone thought that was such a good idea. It was very likely that the Death Eaters would retaliate for the publication, or maybe they wouldn't who could say. The threat still loomed, but that wasn't the issue right now.

Draco as it seemed wasn't able to keep up with Nott's more rugged rabble rousing, and it was pissing him off to no end. There was also the fact most of Slytherin wanted no part in this, but the problematic issue was Nott, and Malfoy both were picking fights with the other houses. Admittedly in this Malfoy went after everyone, not that Nott's dispargements of Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw were much better. This was just the way this year here at Hogwarts was shaping out to be. Sure there were plenty of problems between the upper years, and the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor had always been the worst of intra school problems, but this year was worse than how it had been, and even the teachers recognized that.

Still the school was all dressed up for the feast, and there was no denying it looked great. More interestingly there was food... and Harry was hungry, which was in point of fact the reason he was so willing to go to the feast as opposed to the kitchen. Dinner itself was honestly a lot like the opening feast, well up until Quirrel had burst into. They had been suposed to go back to the common room, but then Percy had found they were missing one, and that a quick trip to the bathroom with all the first years was better than getting the professors, because they were busy in the dungeons and such, besides what was the warm. That his brother was apparently responsible probably had a lot to do with it; Ron had gotten an earful for this, though that was probably because he had tried to sneak off first to right his mistake on his own. So thus here they were... right in front of the troll.

"So we throw fire at it, right? ... Right?"

"Yeah something like that... I hate trolls." It took a bit less prompting, a seven lances of fire, six ientical ones from Harry, and one large wand focused one from Katie, even as Percy was shouting for everyone to back up.

Burned hair is not a particularly pleasant smell, burned troll hair is even worse as far as these things go. Truthfully it probably only pissed the troll off. The troll smashed through the stalls, and part of the wall, well more like plaster as opposed to actually breaking the stone itself.

"Its not working!" Ron added unnecessarily as the Troll roared mightily.

We should move is generally good advice, its also very useless advice when you're fighting a massive troll who's arms drag the ground in a bath room filled with stalls. Percy's jinx was actually well timed in that response, on the down side, it too also just pissed the beast off, though not it couldn't see. So now the troll was swinging wildly at everything in front of it.

Harry's orb of magic was the only thing that really ablated the blow from the club, which was principally because a meter thick sphere of hardened energy between the troll's club slowed it down considerably. It still had enough kinetic force to knock Harry, sphere still intact, through the stalls. He coughed pressing up through the debris from the stalls, "I'm going to burn you," which was the best threat he could manage with his limitted grasp of the only troll dialect he knew... ork was so much simpler. Still he had an idea, and he had all the incredients for the transfiguration. Wood shards transformed into iron and hurtled through the air, igniting and heating to white hot as they flew.

The transfiguration was eating through his magic reserves but even the trolls thick hide couldn't stop dozens of superheated iron shards, what remained was the smell of burned, charred, and outright ionized meet... and a very, very exhausted wizard. The pieces of a half dozen wooden stalls had been transfigured into pieces of metal, of iron in roughly the same shape as they had been in.

Harry dropped to the ground, and promptly vacated his stomach. He wasn't the only one, Percy Weasley and most the Gryfindorsfirst years were doing the same

"Harry,"

He pushed up, still woozy from the vomit, "I'm fine." His brushing the bleeding on his scalp pressing hair and torn skin down... and then the professors decided to show up.

-scene break-

Cleaning up afterwards well that had been unpleasant November first, "How's the arm," Bruised was an understatement. Crunching into the wall had been a pain even slowed by the magic sphere he used to cushion himself. "You should go see Pomfrey you should, anyway brought you something we got from our brother,"

"Figured you might like it," Fred continued, "Seems straight up your interests it does." A book on famed Magical artifacts of Europe, oh yes this was up his alley as it were. "So heard McGonnagal gave you points for whatever you did to the troll with Transfiguration. How'd that work out?"  
"Sod that have you heard our great ponce of a brother, Percy won't stop moaning. Its hilarios it is, he's in such a mess. Don't think that he'll loose the prefect badge though." George remarked, conviently ignoring that that was precisely Snape's point. "Still we're all stuck here for the minute."  
After the Troll Debacle all four houses, not just the House of the Lion, had been confined to their dorms. Something a lot of people weren't happy about after it was obvious the immediate crises was indeed over. Still at least they were having food brought up to them, but that was more making sure everyone was safely in one place while the professors' combed the school thoroughly for any other issues.

Given their confinement to their dorms the entire common room was abuzz, save some of the upper years, most were down here. "So do you think they'll be another one?"

"Another Troll, no they'll shut the school down for sure," Another Gryffindor interjected,

"So what if they're wrong?"  
"I'm staying out of the next fight," Harry responded. His idea had worked, but it'd been ineffecient, and ill thought out. In short a stupid rash plan, as McGonnagal had been sure to make clear to him. Impromptu large scale transfiguration was apparently a bad idea; who would have guessed that. "The Centaurs have a point, Mars is bright, and as they so hopefully mentioned so to Pluto."

"Uhg Divination, still..." George grit his teeth, "Well guess we out to spruce up a bit then, do a bit more excerice with the old wand."  
"What do you mean the old wand?" Fred jibed to his brother, "Dont be pulling that out here,"  
The two bantered on for a few minutes, while Harry worked on his goblet of water, the taste of vomit was still there, still it was fading with a few dozen goblets of water. Such a foul aftertaste, still not a good sign for what was to come. Might even be worth another visit to the Centaurs.

-Chapter conclusion—

Helltanz's notes: Since its no longer the start of the chapter here is a break down of what this fic is outlined as:

Chapters 1-3 Harry (these are the one most in need of clean up)

Chapters 4-6 Summer up til the ride to hogwarts

Chapters 7-9 Train ride and Hogwarts arrival

Chapters 10-12 September, acclimating to Hogwarts

Chapter 13 October, troll fight and such

Chapter 14 November Quidditch, attacks, and repercussions

Chapter 15 Decemember, letters, letters and Dumbledore talking

Chapter 16 January, the Start of the new year,

Chapter 17 February

Chapter 18 March and "Mars is shining"

Chapter 19 April

Chapter 20 End of the year, final tests, where to go from here


	14. Chapter 14 November

Chapter 14

-scene break-

Trolls benefitted from an innate magic resistance, thick skin, and an endurance that made them legendary. Harry loosened the magic feeding belt, and dropped the jacket into the frost covered ground, even if Trolls were legendary monsters this was unacceptable. All of this was a miserable lot he flicked his fingers and fire roared, damned trolls.

His ribs were sore, had been after he'd woken up the next day. It'd been one of many issues after the fight. On the plus side his reserves were not one of those issues. The burning crescent crackled pleasantly.

"It burns steel."  
That wasn't entirely true, "It burns iron," Steel was much too time consuming and energy intensive to wrought with magic in such a way as it required forging iron into steel. On a small scale it could be useful, particularly combined with other tasks. Still the crescent probably could burn steel too. It was not the point, "I should have just used this." He flicked his hand and the fire roared. Impaling the troll had worked yes, but if he'd relied on something... simpler. The whole affair had left the Gryffindor in a bit of a problem. Harry rubbed the raw skin along his palm reflexively, as he set down. "You were born, you've lived in the wizarding world your whole life." It wasn't a question, he held up a hand, "I need a new pair of gloves, so I'm asking you about where to buy a pair." His first pair had been years ago, a pair of oven mits, they'd ended up burning away to raw magic entirely unsuited to the task, and not nearly flexible enough, "I can give you the criteria I need I just need to know a store to buy from."

Daphne looked at him, "You're asking me to go clothes shopping. Why?" It was a reasonable question, he knew to anyone else, even to people he regularly interacted with his request was strange "And why the bandages? You know Nott, and Draco are talking about them?"

"Let them talk, and I all want is a reccomendation, you don't have to go shopping," Everyone else was, talking that was. He flexed his hand, inhale exhale inhale. Each breath fire curled around his hand, it would have been pretty if not for the heat.

She sat down, "So have you seen Snape's limp," It was a little hard to miss the potion's master's new limp. The running joke was that maybe the potion's professor had been too close to an explosion, but all things considered that logically didn't mesh. No people would have heard about the explosion, and while it was possible Snape had gotten any burns treated then he should have gotten whatever was causing the limp treated; hypothetically.

Supposedly there a cerberus, a massive three headed dog on the third floor coridor. He'd heard about it a couple of times. He knew it was there because he'd taken the time to talk to Hagrid, and speaking of talking there was still the issue of the Centaur's warning. "If the centaurs are to be believed, if their view on the future is right" Which Harry wasn't quite decided on yet, but evidence looked like it supported their view on what the future was going to be like, "The future is going to get worse before it gets better." He remarked.

"So you want to buy a pair of gloves?"  
"Yes." It was a simple enough request.

-scene break-

Harry leaned back by the fire. Today was pretty much supposed to be just a normal day for class. It had been Su that had insisted on an actual jog around the lake something about solemn clarity or something. Harry though he never freely admitted anything was open about having had his nose in a book while she'd been talking. Jogging around the lake on a cold november morning was not fun.

So now they were waiting, and eating for classes to start. Some of the older years, and even other first years, not that many were up, or here, didn't appreciate the bringing of other houses into the common room. Then again Harry didn't care. He bit down on the biscuit, he'd already brought up the need for coffee... again. They'd had this routine for the last couple of days now, and it wasn't really getting any easier, especially given it would only get colder.

Still even though today was supposed to be normal the troll attack... it was having repercussions, it'd been in the papers, and Harry was rather regretting somethings he'd said previously. Then again it wasn't like he had any evidence that the troll being let into the school hadn't been a death eater plot, he just didn't have any information to the contrary. It'd had gotten to be the worse last night after the evening edition of the prophet had shown up. Dumbledore had actually had to stand up and interupt a brawl between a couple of the older years, and say definitively that despite all rumormongering by certain people there was in fact no evidence that Death Eaters had had anything to do with the troll.

"Hey Harry," Fred gave him a look, "Heard Maxie is still lodged up in the hospital wing, what ever Birmingham had to be something pretty bad, think it was dark magic," Well that was nice to be hearing early in the morning. The four upper years involved in the scuffle last night had either gotten sent to the hospital wing for the night, or back their dorms. It had been the later that had kind of assured everyone for a moment that maybe this wasn't such a big deal. It looked like those Gryfindor hopes were going to be thoroughly dashed onto the rocks.

George was the one who noticed it first though, "Thats not all thats wrong is it? Whats going on mate, I mean it can't just be those ruddy snakes, I mean we can deal with them don't you worry about that. So whats troubling you?"

Harry tossed a book by the fireside, "I got it by the post," Fred reached to pick it up, it looked muggle. It was a simple looking book paper back, some color to it though. It had a cutaway of a big old building thing built into the earth, and some weird black and yellow trefoil on it. "Don't," Harry warned, "Its the first time in a while," The first time since the last fight, "I don't think its spelled, I don't, but I'm not sure." He couldn't be sure, up until a year ago he had known he hadn't been the only wizard in Surrey, obviously there had probably been more, but he'd at least had another person his age to discuss it with. "Its a book about nuclear fallout shelters, cold war architecture stuff."  
"Nuclear?" Of course Fred and George didn't know, it was stupid to assume two pureblood teenagers who had spent their whole lives here in the wizarding worlds.

He shrugged, "Something muggles made," Harry had grown up in the muggle world, and he hadn't really had an understanding of just how bad the cold war had been until very recently, but it was still a very more defined understanding of the threat than the two purebloods. They had looked at lots of architecture, sure castles and towers were traditional for the fantastic, even comics agreed with the books there, but it never hurt to look at all the options. The book though it was new, just released earlier in the year. He reached down and picked it up, "I don't know whats happening, just watch out for the Slytherins." It was redundantly given advice the twins new that well enough.

The two of them both nodded heavily, "Course, gods be good have you seen what the bastards did to Maxie," It was Harry's turn to shake his head, "Well damn you need to then Harry, Pomfrey is good at patching people up. Its got to be dark magic I tell you. This is getting out of hand."

Everyone had already reached that consensus, and that was even including most of the instigators on the other 'side', even if it was for completely different reasons. It was however about that time that Harry realized he was in point of fact he was still hungry. A hungry wizard was a distracted wizard as they said... actually no one said it but it didn't make it any less true.

"Wait where are you going?"  
"Get breakfast of course," He was hungry, so that was how Fred and George ended up tagging along, and it was on the way to the great hall that things got quickly out of hand. The banishing charm that Hogwarts taught to fifth years was a surprisingly effective spell, its siblings which accomplished much the same function with some tweak here or there even more so in most cases. It was such that Harry went flying down the hallway and hit the stone wall quite hard. Hard enough he couldn't see any thing through the stars as it were.

Now the problem with attackign two on three, is that most times you end up missing the third guy if you don't do it all that well. In this particular case it was George who managed to luck out. On the downside starting a fight so close the great hall when breakfast was already on the table on a morning with classes, not the brightest ideas of course. Of course for such to matter George had to hold out a bit longer than he strictly would have liked.

"Oh bollocks!" was the ever so refined response from George in the face of the incoming spellfire as he dove behind one of the enchanted suits of armor that lined the hallway. Fortunately Hogwarts was famous for having incredibly spacious hallways, which gave George some room to dodge around, "Bugger the lot of you," He groaned flicking his wand out and held on to it for dear life as another spell came hurtling his way. The suit of armor rattled, 'I swear if Harry doesn't kill them both i'm going to prank them till there gone from Hogwarts, I swear it.' George told himself, on the down side Harry was presently teetering on the edge of unconiousness. Fred wasn't much better at the moment, but at least he was stirring and moving just a bit. George flicked a couple spells from his wand, and ran behind the next suit of armor in the line to dodge the two slytherins return fire, unfortunately he didn't have all that much to take them out of the fight. In his favor though was his prized ability to conjure sight obscuring smoke, a spell he was very glad Bill had taught him, which made running to the next spot under cover.

The two slytherins were cursing at the spell, which meant it was working well, and they were certainly making a racket of it, what with the shouting, and the flinging spells into the smoke. This was of course were thigns became problematic people were coming down to eat. Unfortunately this principally meant young years, in this case third second years primarily from two of the other houses; in this case Gryfindor and Ravenclaw. It was good fortune alone that kept any but wayward Hufflepuffs out of the line of spell fire. Others were not so lucky, "No don't come this way!" George shouted, "Stay back you lot," Another banisher, it was weaker than the one that'd knocked Fred down the hallway but still a potent spell that came down the way, it still made George dive out of the way.

George winced a bit as he caught the edge of the banisher's wave, and tumbled head over heel, but it was one of the Ravenclaws that caught the bulk of the spell. George flicked his wand around, he knew for certain now he was going to learn that damn spell if he got out of it. He dodged an electric blue streak of light, which he didn't want to begin to contemplate what it might do, the Slytherins were getting impatient. That was when things got worse it seemed the commotion had gotten everyone involved, or rather people who'd shout from the doorway at other people to get them to come look, or join in the spectacle. Oh and Fred was getting up, and Fred was rather mad, the buzzing of the beetles wasn't really a terrible sign, at worst they'd just bite you but the spell was good for distracting someone, and it didn't need to be maintained. Fred wasn't the only one joining the fight, and for bad new there were Slytherins in the Great Hall.

So when Harry got up off the wall there were spells flying in what was loosely termed a general all around melee, see George had used his obscuring smoke spell again, and that had made things worse than better.

-scene break-

This had been by no means Hogwarts first riot, first melee amongst students. It as the first serious magical one of the year, first in the last couple of years, but they weren't unheard of. It didn't mean that the teachers took them lightly, to say McGonnagal and Snape were furious would be a severe understatement.

"Well here we are again boys," Fred declared dramatically standing on a chair as they all waited to here from Dumbledore, "Here we are, noble lions unjustly accused." They, the Gryfindors, had basically been ledd into the room, and told to sit down, after that the door had been slammed behind them.

His brother stood up on the chair beside him posing, "Indeed good brothers of Gryfindor house, here we are bound in chains, unjustly blamed for a fight instigated by our age old enemies the snakes of Slytherin," There was some rumbling from the Gryfindors who'd been involved in the scuffle. As far as the fighting had went the Hufflepuffs had really been the only house not involved and thus not having a portion of their house segregated off waiting for Dumbledore to yell at them for starting a fight in the corridor.

The collection was by no means a sizable portion of the house, sixteen Gryfindors were in the room most from the upper years, in fact Harry was the only first year present. For House Ravenclaw one of their younger years had gotten caught in the fight as well, but that was something for Dumbledore and Flitwick to sort out. The real problem would be Snape, and McGonagal together, or so the upper years expected.

"This cannot go on!" One of the upper years declared, "Those dark buggers need to be taught a lesson they'll not soon forget!" He shouted at them. Richard got out of his chair and started pacing around the still mostly seated Gryfindors, "We got to do something, the twins are right. We've got to do something." And so the rallying began, oddly enough the Ravenclaws, and the Slytherins in the next room were having precisely the same conversation as the Gryfindors... ironic.

"That will be enough out of you Mr. Westerman, you lot have caused enough trouble today," Came McGonagal's declaration from the doorway, "There will be no further continuation of this ridiculous schoolyard feud, you will remain here until I return from my meeting with the headmaster, and professor Snape." There was a groan from many of the assembled Gryfindors at this announcement even as she turned away and closed the door behind her and leaving them here to stir about in the room.

McGonagal sighed as she started walking towards Dumbledore's office, where Snape was no doubt already waiting. She knew that everyone had gotten off lucky Hennet at least only had a broken forearm, and that was easily fixed, not that she'd admit it but George's smoke had really kept things from getting worse. Nearly everyone involved had largerly failed to hit because they hadn't really been able to see the 'other side' as it were. As it was more people had gotten hurt falling down trying to avoid spells than anything else.

From the sound of it though Severus had already begun in on his usual rant. "I told you this was going to happen if the issue with the first years wasn't nipped in the bud," Snape was saying loud and angry, "lets face it now we've got the Ravenclaws involved, and"  
"Now Severus, if you would at least wait to at least Minverva hear your complaints, I am quite sure you are simply blowing things out of proportion," Dumbledore remarked, "Come in Minerva its already unlocked," He called out in a louder voice, and then continued on as she walked into the office, "Now then we do however have much to dicuss about this scuffle. A terrible thing yes, and Severus is very much correct something to rectify and prevent from occuring again. Still with Christmas less than a month away I should hope that will settle things"

Snape's groan was long and loud, "A month," He exclaimed stammering for a minute, "Albus thats daft, we can't hope this settles itself out on its own." Snape's complaint was fairly grounded, if slightly exagerated, to be truthful the Headmaster was taking this a bit too lightly even if it was near Christmas. "Albus I," It took some hemming and hawing for Snape to actually come out and voice that maybe, just maybe that Gryfindor hadn't actually fired the first spell in the fight.

"I do believe given the events as we seem to understand them I think we can write off Mr. Potter's prescence as a mere outlier this many seems an incident of our upper years, distasteful as that might be given that they should all know better." McGonagal stated, she spared Flitwick a glance, "I do however think some form of disciplinary action should be enforced."

-scene break-

What had ended up being funny was that even with three houses loosing a not insignifcant amount of points Hufflepuff was still not in the lead. As is it was all the loosing of points had done was tie things up. Truth be told they were just lucky the Quiditch game had gone a cleanly as it had, especially given how close it had been. It'd taken till half into the match, relatively speaking both teams tied up at hundred, to a hundred and ten, lions leading, that Slytherin had started to stir things up.

Flint had started things off, but even with what had gone on, it had quickly devolved into not just the Slytherins fouling the other team. Neither Seeker in truth had been in a good situation thirty minutes after Flint had started things, that had been when the match was finally called. Of course by that time both the green and the red sets of spectators were by and large shouting at each other. So in the end Hooch had called the match, and it'd been a sour victory, but better than another brawl especially with almost the entirety of the school present.

It'd taken almost the entire teaching staff to get both sides to start heading back to their respective rooms. That was probably the problem, and in truth it didn't help people in Gryfindor were snopping after Snape now that he was limping. It didn't mean they were going to attack him, but at the same time no body could say how bad this was going to get it.

"Tell you Snape's been snooping around that third floor corridor no body is supposed to go,"  
One of the upper years nodded, and gave some pause to consider before speaking up, "Bet thats where he got the limp, messing around with three headed dog." Everyone knew about the Cerberus now, and that it was Hagrid's dog, and that surprise surprise the dog's name was fluffy, but no body knew what was down the trapdoor.

"What do you think is up there?" Asked the first one,

Harry tossed his bag of books over his shoulder, riotous behavior or not Hogwarts was still a school, and classes were still being held. He got about twelve steps about out of the door before he got held up by another member of the house.

"Potter," In this case it was a Weasley, Ronald, not Fred or George, had run up, panting and out of breath, probably having just run all the way up from the great hall and breakfast, "Just the Lion was looking for, who's Nicolas Flammel?"

Harry stared at him, "I think he's a French Alchemist," He shrugged, "Thats what I read," He didn't remember anything else, and it'd been a muggle book, so maybe it was different Flamel, whatever the case it seemed to satisfy the red head.

"Right thanks, got to grab my books," Ron darted past, and shouted the password at the portrait before jumping through the frame.

The dark haired wizard resumed walking wondering briefly what that had been about, before putting it aside. He had a little bit of time before he needed to be in class with the rest of the Gryfindor first years, and he still had things to do. It was only mid November, and Dumbledore was hoping the Christmas would cool everyone off, but with the way things were worsening Harry wasn't holding out hope. So it was part of the reason he was off to where he was going.

Hogwarts was truly massive. It was visible on the outside obviously, he hadn't realized just how large the castle had been then. Under though, well that was even bigger. It'd been when he found the old Roman styles baths, long abandonned, in the castle he'd actually opened up Hogwarts a history again.

It hadn't been that helpful, but Hogwarts like many ancient magical Roman sites had had indoor plumbing, in fact Hogwarts hard originally used a modified Roman plumbing plan, that had been back when the Founder's had originally built the castle. It partially explained why the castle had such an extensive underground.

Hogwarts at one point had to have sustained a much larger population, but that wasn't the issue today, besides he didn't expect any trouble, and it wasn't going to cost him much time considering he did have potions with the other gryfindors, which was what made this meeting pratical in the first place.

"Snape is going to give you all the run around," Daphne remarked as he walked in, "Dumbledore thinks this will all be over after Christmas, that the hols will calm everyone down."

He shrugged, before brushing his bare hands, "Maybe, looks more like its going to get worse before then though," All things considered well the lower years liked to talk, but the older years seemed like the ones who were serious about going through with it. "there is a lot of talk in Gryfindor about all this, and there will probably be some more action soon."

Percy had tried to put a stop to that, but then again he hadn't seemed to have much luck. Percy had in no uncertain terms been told to shut up and tow the party line. It hadn't been something the prefect had taken particularly well putting him as one of the very few dissenting voices inside Gryfindor house. Hermione Granger was one of the few others who was openly dissenting within the group, though there were likely a few people who just weren't open about it.

"Its no different in Slytherin," She commented sitting on a long unused desk, "Has anyone actually opposed the idea in your house?"  
He snorted, "Out loud? Yeah there have been a few of them, its all slimy snakes this, that greasy git that at this point. As it the house though the house is more or less in lockstep."

"I expected as much," She flicked her wand to check the time... which was one of the few things Harry preferred to do the muggle way, he liked checking his watch, "We should go ahead and grab our seats early."

-scene break-

The last week of November was where things started to come to a head. The headmaster continued to say things would be better after everyone had the chance to cool down, but three major things happened that last week. The first had been on the twenty fifth when a major death eater riot in Southern England had broken, no one knew why the Death Eaters had rioted that day. Of course officially no one at Hogwarts had known about the raid, but when word had come the morning after it'd certainly seemed the fighting had been thought about before hand.

It'd actually been a Hufflepuff who'd thrown the first spell that morning, but that had quickly proven a mistake for him in any case. The sixth year Hufflepuff had walked right up to a mass of Slytherins and hurled a spell at effectively point blank, he'd hit, but it'd really just pissed the snakes off. It still had gotten the other badgers to join it. Then it'd gotten worse when the younger years present had jumped in with their house mates.

The second incident had surprise surprise invovled Slytherin and Gryfindor, but the reason it was important was that Professor Quirell had gotten caught in the cross fire. Quirell had actually laughed if it off, and hadn't taken the issue badly at all in fact. It was that that had dramatically improved his standing with both involved houses, who did for the most part feel bad for catching him in the fray.

The same however could not be said for the respective heads of houses. Snape for once, or so it seemed, had actually dished out punishments to members of his own house. Normally that would be a high point in any Gryfindor's week, except there had been other issues. As it had happened Quirrel had not been the only one caught in the crossfire so now the Ravenclaws by and larger were also pissed at Gryfindor, as well as Slytherin. All in all it was not a pretty situation to be in.

That ponce... and for once this didn't mean Malfoy but rather Nott, since he had started the fight, well Nott had made a mess of things. Revealing just how fracturable Slytherin was. He and Malfoy had come to blows showing just were the various loyalties were. Nott and Selwyn had squared off with Malfoy and Zabini, and it had ended up drawing others into it. Now the Lions were looking to pounce in on the situation, so things were probably about to get worse.

The Weasley twins weren't here, because they had detention for their part in the action as of late, and well Mcgonagal hadn't been happy. Truthfully though Harry wasn't in the patient mood, without the gloves his magic was a bit more active, unsupressed a bit more free as it was.

It was Katie who finally ended up asking the question as his magic swirled around his feet, "You're not going to actually go looking for a fight are you?"

"No," He promised, and it was the truth, because he had for the moment learned his lesson after the debacle earlier in the month. Head plus stone equals pain was a fairly simple equation after all, and well there the fact things were complicated.

Su had wanted to bring one of the Ravenclaws, MacDougal if Harry was remembering right, but had ended up deciding against it at the last minute. It was probably because all four houses were now at each others throats. "Ravenclaw is tired of both Gryfindor, and Slytherin, and to a lesser extent of Hufflepuff"  
"Because of the fight a couple of days ago?"

The Ravenclaw nodded, that was pretty much the defacto reason, "The fight did catch many people who were otherwise uninnolved in it in the fray," That had definitely been the case, Hufflepuff might have started the fight but the Slytherins innovlved hadn't been in anyway discerning about who they hit.

"I don't mean to dismiss your House," Katie turned to Daphne,"and don't take this the wrong way either, but I think Slytherin is our real concern, I mean Selwyn alone didn't hesistate to start cursing members of your house,"

Harry sat back against the rock, "Nott has been talking a lot more," Now that he was hanging around Selwyn a lot more, especially"and while they are well exept for you, like us first years, both he and Malfoy have apparently some influence on others," it didn't extend all the way to the upper years, but the Selwyn boy Nott was throwin in was a bit more worrying than Zabini ever could hope to be. "Malfoy seems to be loosing traction."

"The upper years don't really care about the first years," Daphne remarked "which is why I think all this is going on," Of course it probably helped Slytherin's prefects never said anything about members of their own house. That was when Daphne dropped the bombshell as it were, "They know you've been practicing the fire, they know all of us have."

... well that was probably going to be an issue, and Harry had a good idea who probably had made sure the information had gotten around to anyone who'd wanted to know. Redmond Boyle liked spreading information about, especially if it bolstered House Slytherin's position. It was possible that it had gotten out another way, but it didn't really matter at this point, not after the troll incident on Halloween.

Harry folded a corner down on his novel, and sat for a minute. "So then December starts tomorrow is there anything they've said?"

"Not yet, but I don't know if it'd be mentioned-"  
Harry snorted, "and with them pissed off about loosing the Quiditch match they," They were probably going to try something sooner rather than later. "well Malfoy wants to show Nott up, and then there are the upper years."

"We should consider to leave the older students to each others care," Su suggested, and that might have been an actual option if they'd stop fighting were others would get caught in the crossfire, but given how spontaneous the fights were...

Another snort, "not really an option after that Hufflepuff walked up and pulled his wand on a whole group of Slytherins in the Great Hall." Dumbledore was going to have to do something before this got even worse, and no action seemed forth coming.

-scene break—


	15. Chapter 15 Winter Interlude I

Chapter 15

-scene break-

It'd been the first of December when the Howlers had started to arrive en masse. It hadn't been a nice morning in the great hall, a few going off hadn't been an issue, but this hadn't been just a few, and what had followed had been a mad dash to get out of the hall before the screaming started to defean everyone. Even the mass of howlers though hadn't been enough to derail classes for the day, as the teachers had so cheerfully announced to the school.

It'd been Malfoy senior showing up that'd nearly been the last straw for some of the upper years, it had been McGonnagal that had frog marched the entire house up the stairs. Well most the house, she'd missed a few, but not enough to do something stupid. Lucius Malfoy was still a father, and in truth had been here solely out of concern for Draco's well being, and to pester Snape about watching over his son. He hadn't known when he'd first come about Snape's leg injury, and left Hogwarts with his interest peaked.

No one knew why the Death Eater faction had attacked several days priors, not even Lucius Malfoy, even he had had no idea what all the ruckus raised had been about. No one would believe that though, certainly none of the House of the Lion. Some of the lions thought they should have jumped Malfoy right there regardless of the costs, even with the whole of House Slytherin there. It was precisely the reason the house was scattered at the moment across the campus.

The ground was still frost covered today, despite being well into midday, Hagrid had said he expected perhaps the first snow of winter within the week. Harry adjusted his jacket, "Almost half the muggleborn are staying the year," He commented,

"What about you?"

He shrugged before prodding one of his spiders away, "Don't know yet," truthfully there was a lot he needed to do to patch up the old derelict of a castle, at least if he hoped to live in it come summer. In truth all this between the houses, and the book in the post they were all weighing on his mind. He tightened his grip on the piece of wood he was carving, Hagrid had been showing him some pointers on using the knife for whittling. "I might go back home, might should stay here." He wanted to llok around the castle more, Fred and George had said that there were all kinds of secret passages, and that was ussually how they spent their break.

"We should all go shopping," Tracy announced, "I mean you need new gloves, so best time," The Slytherin remarked, it was a tempting off, save Harry disliked shopping. It was a necessary evil of course looking for things to buy so you could do things with them later. "For now though Snape is all about ranting about avoiding fighting," That was the new twist, but Snape had good reason for it December first had seen a serious fight between Flint, and a Ravenclaw. Flint had nearly lost and eye, but the Ravenclaw was a worse mess. Nothing that Madama Pomfrey couldn't patch up, but still it was reason enough to yell at his House.

There wasn't all that long in class left before winter holiday, where normally everyone would be excited right now there were other concerns. Still it didn't mean people weren't looking forward to the break, "Shopping would be great," Katie agreed.

"I..." He could have told them all he wasnt going, but he was new to the magical world... and he really did need to go shopping. Tea could only do so much, he considered what all he'd jotted down in one of the dozen of composition books. His shopping list was starting to get extensive, it had broken three pages back at the end of october just from looking through potion books, and a herbology text book that Neville had left out in the common room before that whole troll fiasco had stirred up the school like a hornets nest. That'd been before the Weasley Twins had given him the book on 'famed Magical artifacts of Europe'. He'd finally gotten a chance to finish reading through, and a name had come up.

Nicolas Flammel, born thirteen twenty seven, and still alive till today. Harry's muggle book was right he was French Alchemist. Further research on the matter had turned up he'd been in and out of trouble for nearly break the statute of secrecy a couple of times by being spotted by muggles. The man's most famous achievement however was the item detailed in the book, the creation of the philosopher's stone, what it didn't answer was why Ron Weasley had asked who Flamel was.

"So we're all agreed then?" Katie turned to Su, the Weasley twins, who weren't here, had already been clear that they'd be staying at Hogwarts. Su as it was had in fact intended to go home for the holidays, but expected that she would be likely occupied with family stuff. That put a stopper on Katie being quite so upbeat, less so for Tracy, and far less for Daphne. Li's most descisive showing had been joining the group.

Katie had been the first one to join the group, yes, and she'd done it because of the Death Eater attack on the train station. Su had joined out of the desire to expand her own horizons, and Daphne had joined in the interest of strength. Fred and George tagged along because it had seemed like fun, and then it got useful. Tracy tagged along occasionally solely because Daphne was here more often than not.

The conversation progressed really from there, Katie was a little disappointed that Su wouldn't be able to make it, but things went on. "So what next?" It was Su that ended up asking. Katie had been the one to figure how best to integrate fire creation through wand magic, it had its draw backs, but using a wand drastically amplified the magic. Su though had been the one to take the initiative when they'd started water, and gotten it to become ice.

"Figure out," Harry squeezed the wood, sending match into the block, and watched as it started to bud and develop new growths. You couldn't use acid to etch markings on wood, the magic interfered, and the same was true with fire, so while iron wasn't the best elemental solution it worked, simply because Harry just didn't have the fine control needed to use water.

It was Daphne who had more of a problem with that response, and posed the question she had asked more than once. "Can we move on to lightning then?"

"Can you make a spark?" Lightning was harder than fire after all. He focused, and bluish white crackling glowed around his bare left hand for a minute.

-scene break-

The last day of classes before break was rapidly approaching, and with it anticipation was building for the holidays. Gryfindor was all abuzz too, by this point 'everyone', figuratelively speaking, was sure that Dumbledore had to be hiding something on the third floor. Ron had made sure that he thought for sure Snape was trying to steal whatever it was, and had probably let the troll in.

Malfoy though, Malfoy had taken the chance to one up Nott and start stirring trouble amongst the First Years. Malfoy picked the easist link to provoke in Gryfindor's chain, Ron Weasely. It hadn't been hard for the blonde prat to get a rise out of the red head. He'd chosen to do it in potions class. A week before McGonagal had come around making a list of everyone staying through the Holidays.

There was a clang as the cauldron went over, and Snape abruptly swilred around, but by this point it was too little too late. "Weasley," Partially brewed potion hit flame, and maybe, just maybe if it'd just been Weasley's cauldron, or just Neville's cauldron it wouldn't have been such a big deal, Snape went for a tumble sliding over slick stone. Malfoy was screaming as his cauldron tipped its contents to the burning stream, and he was already grabbing for his wand, but Ron hadn't gotten on top of him. That was went the potion cooked off and exploded.

The bang was smaller than that first week of school's, it did kick up a lot of thick green smoke. It was as bad if not worse than the smoke that Ron's brother had conjured up in the Hallway fight almost a month ago. Then there was a shout amongst the voices, and another bang.

Not that anyone saw it, but Nott had gotten his wand out first, and he'd fired blindly into the thick noxious green smoke. The spell had gone high, failing to hit anyone, but it did manage to hit something. The electric blue spell hit another cauldron, which tipped over, and then spilled into the mess. That was when the panicing started. Some of the first years went for their wands, though only a few of the purebloods really knew anything worth casting while others rushed for the door. A couple dozen first years were running one way while the others were shooting sparks, and worse around volatile ingredients, while choking on magic smoke.

Snape ducked behind a desk, and glowered at them. "Well?" Huh, was the most eloquent response Harry could respond with. "Its Weasley's fault how do you suggest it get fixed Potter?" Snape snarked irritably, "and if you say magic fire it'll be detention, I swear it."

"I wasn't going to say that," Harry didn't like getting exploded more than anyone else did, "Getting out is probably the best idea?"

Snape shrugged, good as any at this point, "Two points to Gryfindor, best idea all day." He was going to regret this, the professor flicked his wand, and blasted the door to the class room off its hinges and down the hallway, "I'll deal with cauldrons make sure everyone gets out Potter or its detention."

"Come on Harry," Daphne remarked, on the plus side everyone already at the door was now running down the hall, and Snape was yelling at everyone to get out of the room even as he was banishing cauldrons down and away from the rest of the class.

That must have been an advantage to teaching, seeing as he seemed to know where all the cauldrons were. Harry kind of regretted running down the hall, after them, because Malfoy and Ron had apparently decided they weren't finished.

"Come on Malfoy," Crabbe stepped forward and Ron shouted something nearly undistinguishable and the bigger boy went flying... this had to be Fred and or George's fault, "Right here wizards duel you want to start something come on then!" And Ron was irate.

Harry took a step back, "Does anyone not want to be involved in this?" A couple dozen hands went up, thats what he thought, "Yeah lets go." Snape would probably be fine, he was a wizard, and a teacher they probably had stuff like this happen all the time, and besides Harry didn't even like Snape, but he'd probably be fine all the same.

Nott, Pansy and some of the other Slytherins stood there around Malfoy, likewise Dean, Hermione and some of the Gryfindors also made the choise to stick around. Harry started walking down an adjoining corridor.

Neville stopped to look back, and then back to Harry, even as the latter was walking into an unusued classroom. "Where are we going Harry? Maybe we should go back to the dorm... eh Harry uhm maybe we should," Seeing he wasn't convincing him, Neville sighed and followed on into the unused classroom.

"So what are we going to be doing?"

Harry dropped his bag on a dusty desk, "I'm going to make sure I didn't leave anything," and with that said Harry started to rifle through his bag. All things considered while potions wasn't always interesting, and he still wasn't convinced on the usefulness of going to the class all the time it did have its moments.

-scene break-

Apparently... apparently Snape breaking up a fight between Malfoy and Ron, in Ron's mind meant that Snape absolutely had to be more guilty. Okay, sure something was clearly being hidden, even Hagrid had pretty much come out and said that much. It had been convincing other people that Snape was trying to steal whatever it was had been more difficult for Ron. He just wasn't having all that much luck, what he was having was McGonnagal chew the entire house out for poking around and snooping about the restricted corridor, and speculating on Snape well that'd just set her off even further.

So here they were again, one more miserable day of classes, and the whole house was still on lock down, and McGonnagal chewing the entire house, and now she was rounding on Harry, "Mr. Potter the headmaster would like to see you in his office, if you would follow me." That certainly didn't sound like it was good news. Gryfindor's head of house hadn't been terribly keen about him going away from Hogwarts for Holidays. Something about acceptable supervision, on the plus side Mcgonagal had been, and was quite clear on her dislike of the Dursleys.

The walk to Dumbledore's office was quiet, and boring. The hallways of Hogwarts were downright icy, and for the mmost part empty. Most students if they weren't in class were tucked away by the fire side. It was nice Su had given up those jogs around the now frozen lake. McGonagal didn't go up the stairs after giving the password.

"I'll be parting ways with you here Mr. Potter, I am afraid your fellow housemates have been far to busy in their trouble than I have time to spare." She commented, and that was when Harry noted the small compact mirror, and realized he'd not seen Fred and George all day. McGonagal didn't wait for a response and walked away.

Harry looked up the stairs, and started walking. Dumbledore's office was pretty much the same, though some decorations for the Holidays had been added. Dumbledore's robes were as brightly colored as always.

Apparently he must have been early because the headmaster was busy hovering over a small spindly table occupied with poking and prodding a silvery device... which was covered in markings flashing a particular vibrant electric blue, "Ah just have a seat now Harry this will be done in just a minute or so." Dumbledore remarked absentmindedly and continued fiddling, "I do say that should do it," He tapped his wand on a spot, and the erratic flashing stabilized. "This will be yours perhaps one day I'm sure, I intend to add it to the Hogwarts collection of items, something most Headmasters, and most professors even, contribute to. Alchemy is one of our greatest fields of study, I should say though its a rarely pursued field these days. It lets us make things though, impressive things, wondrous devices." The Headmaster stepped behind his desk, and sat in his soft chair, "in any case I know of course from Minerva, that is Professor McGonagal that there have been inquiries regarding just what is beneath's Fluffy's trapdoor, and of course I have absolute faith in Severus, that is to say professor Snape, so I would just like to lay that matter to rest." Dumbledore remarked, and then paused briefly, "That of course being said there are other maters. I'm told you've a bit of late Christmas shopping planned, indeed the house elves tell me your list is rather lengthy of things they're not familiar with, and of course there is no issue with that." The old man looked a bit more solemn, "I must say I can think of no significance of the date of the attack of the twenty fifth, it came most abruptly. It along with the troll are both so supsicious, I thought to take this opportunity to again caution restraint. I am not saying you should remain at Hogwarts for the break, but I certainly would prefer that, but the option is still yours."

"Then what is this about?" Dumbledore obviously had something else in mind by calling him here other than just talking about Death Eaters or the professors.

The headmaster reached into a drawer and produced a collection of pieces of parchment, "There are other elements that you should be wary of." For a moment he might actually find something out about Vampires or maybe werewolves he hadn't know, but that was sadly not to be the case, instead he got just a warning to be careful.

-scene break-

The snow had gotten a little thicker over night, but it'd been light compared to earlier in the week, which was good, though it was a good several inches still, an increase from the start of the week from when it had been only up to their ankles. Luckily the students who would be riding the train had the good fortune of getting to ride the carriages to the train station, which was likely what everyone would be doing at the end of the year. The carriages also had heating charms, which was a notable and distinct improvement over the frigid halls of the castle.

As it was they'd probably end up splitting up at the train station at King's Cross, but for the time being they had each other for company. The Hogsmeade station was a testament to the inherrent conservativism of the wizarding world, it was a dated structure built a sizable distance from the town. It had been done so at the time of construction to avoid disturbing the wizards who lived in Hogsmeade. That had of course been years ago, even though even then Hogwarts had still been the only wizarding village.

It seemed from reading history there was a dark lord of some sort at least twice a century, it'd just been poor luck Grindelwald, and Voldemort had been such powerful ones and had followed rapidly after each other. The story was that Dumbledore had killed Grindelwald, it was that story that intrigued Harry. A story of details lacking, no one seemed to be able to produce those answers not even Hermione Granger the resident bookworm, who was also going home for the holidays.

"We should grab a compartment," Katie commented, "And Malfoy's coming," She warned quickly spotting the blonde Slytherin walking down the platform with his trunk levitating behind quickly moved aboard the train. It was quite crowded given that most students did in fact go home for the break.

Finding a compartment was surprisingly difficult, most had spread out hoping for some room spreading out amongst the length of the train. Still it was not near so bad as a late arrival could have been, and they found a compartment near the fore of the train, where they quickly dropped their trunks.

Harry settled his trunk, the cold coming into the station had been unpleasant, and further south it would be worse. He flexed his hands after that was done, "Well at least we've got seats," Daphne's beast of a bird made an annoyed noice as she settled it as well. It was a fierce thing, Pansy mocked it often as ill suited for a lady, but it was swift in flight, and that meant quickly received letters even in such conditions as these.

"I-" Katie stopped as the train gave a long whistle, she waited as another call was made for people to board the train, and started again, "was thinking we could head to Diagon Alley for lunch when we arrived they have portkeys, you know we could take"

Su murmed it would depend on her family's choices, which was understandable all things considered. "I have been gone since school started, my grandmother has been looking forward to my coming home," She added, by all indications Su's grandmother was a foil to Neville's own a stern but compassionate woman... and a fine cook by all indications.

A few minutes later they waited as a final boarding call was issued by the train, and it finally some minutes after that started a rumbling as it started. Harry exhaled flaring magic into his cold fingers to warm them, causing Daphne to snort and chuckle. "You're too used to wearing gloves. Anyway lunch would probably be easy to manage I'm sure my father won't mind,"

That bit about the gloves was probably true, they'd seen the pulsing marks under the bandages at this point. It'd been unavoidable after the troll. They'd asked and he'd yet to answer, only the Centaurs in the forrest had a clue, and their talking about it had been enough to steer Harry away from any visit he could avoid.

Tracy agreed, and Katie expected it would be easy to get permission to go eat. It sounded fine as far as plans went for the start of the holidays, certainly it wasn't as if there was anything better to do, and they'd certainly be hungry by the time they arrived at the King's Cross station. Diagon Alley also meant the chance to go ahead and shop around, which was probably what Katie was angling for anyway it being the first day of the holidays and all.

-scene break-

The magical, and muggle worlds had many differences, and many similiarities. Unfortunately the establishment of the Statute of Secrecy pressed by the Europeans had coincided with unfortunate times. The treaty had been formally implmented in 1692, but had been in the works before that given increasing anti magical sentiment in the muggle world. It was an irony of ironies that the European wizards benefited from the treaty while the rest of the magical world was largely made poorer because of it. In the end though, when Qing broke at the start of the century China had been better off. The statute meant that the wizarding communities had been secreted away from the muggles to avoid their wars, that'd been the intention. It had not been wholy successful.

Su would have liked to go along for lunch in Diagon Alley, but at the same time she was also quite glad to be out of school, and home. Her mother had took her home, after they'd all agreed to owl about lunch on Christmas day. Her mother thought it would be a grand idea, as did her grandmother, which gave her great hope for actually getting permssion to go.

Su's grandfather, and patriarch of the clan, was an ancient wizard. The old man was Dumbledore's age, with nearly as abusrd a beard, even by wizard standards its length was great. He had held a number of jobs before settling into his job as an enchanter, one that he'd held for the last seventy years, he adjusted his glasses as she made his way through the sitting room, "Ah did you learn much when you were at school?"

"I..." This was her chance. The magic swirled as she held out her hand, there was a spark above her palm, and a crackle drawing her mother's attention. She focused deeply on the emotions, and fire crackled and roared as she poured magic which formed into a sphere of red orange fire the size of a bludger. It was like a little minature sun. A bead of sweat trickled down her face and she exhaled exhausted from the holding the fire there for a minute.

Her grandmother, "Aiyah no magic in sitting room, smoke sticks to furniture, I raised you better than this," The old woman scolded before Chun spoke up getting her to lay off.

"I thought it was a fine demonstration," Her husband responded, "but we'll do any future ones outside of the house in the future allright?" He placated his wife gingerly, "I'm sure Su will remember that in the future."

The conversation that followed was lengthy. Su's sorting had been dead on, Ravenclaw was the proper place for her. Still Harry would have been quite cross at the discussion. There wasn't anything malicious about sharing the information.

Her grandfather, and her settled down. For so long England had its problems, as a whole the wizarding world had plenty of problems, but Voldemort's fall had left the Death Eater's fractured and running about. Her grandfather was eager to hear her stories of school, "Emotions have power great, grand daughter mine. I think you've learned well.

-scene break-

Daphne dropped her things in her room which rested beside her sister. Lunch had gone well, and shopping after ward had been great after they'd gone to Gringotts first obviously. Harry, and Katie had hit a half dozen bookstores looking for things on Nicholas Flamel, the alchemist, which had peaked her interest, as up until this point Harry had had seemingly little interest in wizarding history. She had planned to ask both her father, and his brothers, one of her uncles would probably have the answer of the man if her father didn't. It was probably nothing, her mother told her, Flamel was an old wizard an alchemist who had ties to Dumbledore, her mother had said, it was probably that, as far theories went it was probably sound.

Maybe that was the case, but Daphne thought she would look into it nonetheless. She tossed her purchases haphazardly onto her bed. Harry had ended up being impatient about getting gloves, which was what she'd intended to give him for Christmas. It wasn't like the idea was completely ruined, but she'd definitely need to go shopping in the alley. At the very least it was an excuse to get her mother to let her go shopping again so soon. Her mother brought other ill news, Narcissa had extended Lucius's invitation to Christmas Dinner.

It was not an uncommon invitation, Malfoy and Greengrass shared a common heritage tracing back to where both shared a single wizard sire who'd come from Normandy when William the bastard had crossed. The Malfoys, Lucius as his father had before him, brought that shared heritage up whenever. They brought it up both often, but most especially when bringing up the ties was helpful to their agenda. That was just the way things were.

Daphne walked through the house stopping to look at the massive tapestry, a magic family tree. She had never really paid much attention to it, but far in the corner on the opposite side of the family, was Harry J. Potter, he was closer related to the Malfoys then she was to them, but the interesting thing were there were three sets of years beside his name. That was the curiousity, because the first was obviously his birth, and the second was 1981 October 31st. The third didn't make any sense, she'd asked about but no one could make sense of it. So they'd all left it alone.

Astori popped up beside her, "So do you know what your wearing? To dinner with Uncle Lucius I mean, we're going to Christmas dinner with them this year." Uncle Lucius... that was funny given Harry was closer by blood relation to both Narcissa and Lucius than the entire Greengrass family was.

"I haven't thought about it," She commented with a shrug, it wasn't that big of a deal, if anything it might be an excuse to go clothes shopping. "I'd planned on taking the time to look around some shops in London," She announced so her mother would here,

-scene break-

Harry had quickly found he'd failed to consider a number of things. Food amongst them... that was a major oversight on his part. He hadn't even considered it, which was precisely why he'd fallen back into the habit of his to hit the Surrey library to see if he could research something. In this case agriculture, and farming and feeding populations. After that he'd considered greenhouses, since they had had those in Hogwarts. Until then... well orks, and goblins could eat bacon and rice for the winter... or something, for right now bacon and rice would have to do for them...

So after a painfully, to his pride at least, long shopping trip to the grocery store with his aunt in Surrey Harry had spent the night at the old Potter house in London. He'd gotten up in the morning planning to go to the dillapidated castle to try and oversee refurnishing, given the temperature that was sure to be unpleasantly cold to say the least, found McGonnagal banging on his door. She'd taken one look at the books on historical alchemy, particularly Progress in the Art, of the late 1300s and exploded irritably at him. The text wasn't even all that detailed... or helpful translated old French was boring and wordy as far as texts went. It was primarily a second source historical text, it said so specifically in the front of the book, with exceprts from primary sources. It was more interesting than Binn's lectures, but that wasn't saying much. Then again he'd barely gotten through chapter 3 of the book so far before changing texts, so maybe there was something in there.

After the head of Gryfindor had finally stopped her tirade, she had brought up that Ronald Weasley had apparently snuck into Snape's office. They only knew this because Filch, the caretaker, had caught him sneaking back to the tower, and Ron had started shouting how Snape was responsible for something or other. It seemed like a sizable portion of Gryfindor was now aware that somehow the alchemist was the linchpin to figuring out what Dumbledore was hiding. After she'd left Harry had gone back to his readings on agriculture alternating between modern muggle methods, and magical ones.

On the plus side going shopping with Petunia had given him the opportunity to buy a number of things. Including most notably the things to actually make a cup of coffee without electricity, because naturally there were no power sockets in Hogwarts.

He opened the letter, well letters seeing as there were two. Harry tossed the far more formally written back on the old desk, he'd read it in a minute and stuck his feet back on the desk as the bird stared at him. "What?" He turned back to the paper, on the one hand not fixing food was great... on the other Daphne was inviting him to tag along to eat with Malfoy at dinner on Christmas. The more wordy letter said much the same, but included a guest list.

-scene break-


	16. Chapter 16 Winter Interlude II

-scene break-

Draco stared, he'd never had cause to doubt his father, but to invite Potter... cousin or not, into their home for dinner by all that was sacred this was, well it was enough to make young Draco Malfoy more than a tidy bit nervous. It was Christmas, and Harry Potter did not strike Draco as the type to observe sacred days for stopping bloodshed, though maybe he observed the sacred guest... Draco hoped at least.

Hilariously enough Harry had had a conversation already about this same thing. It was an irony to be sure that he had been worried about the same thing. Still it was agreed by all that Lucius Malfoy was many things, but his father had at least drilled the old ways firmly into his head. Lucius would abide the rights of hospitality.

Harry eyed him, and Narcissa asked if he needed somewhere for his gloves, and coat, given how warm the manse was. Draco abruptly spoke up, "He's scarred mother, thats what the gloves are, they are hideous things. They say he burned the troll to death with the magic pulsing from them,"  
"Draco," Narcissa exclaimed scandalized at her son's blutness. "that will be enough of your rumor mongering, I expect you to mind your tongue." She hissed quitely at him.

The rumor was one of several floating around Hogwarts. People had asked about the marks, but it'd been those he trusted he'd confided in. They were magic wounds, scars wrought by magic that would not heal, certainly not any time soon. "I do not care," He hissed sorely back, "And no the troll died another way, though yet by fire ."

"Harry," Daphne whispered turning slightly green, "I don't need to hear that story again," She could still smell the horendous odor that had permeated the bathroom and the hall. The reek of burned hair and meat. She flinched a bit, "Not again,"

After it had happened people had clamored to see the site of the fight. To see all the damage the troll had done to the bathroom. The teachers had to take shifts running students off away from the bathroom. Snape had hated it, and made that much known. Still Snape had warned the whole house to be wary, and used it as a lesson. The lions like fire he had said in an oddly poetic turn of phrase one night when he had addressed Slytherin. "The lions like fire," Draco echoed,

"What was that Draco?" His mother asked, Lucius and the Greengrass men were not yet here, they would be joining them later. Narcissa though was a stern woman all the same, stern enough to certainly keep Draco in line. There was just the hint of dangerous to her voice, and Harry remembered that this woman was a pureblood witch.

She was according to the Potter family tree in one of Charlus's old, yet self updating books a relative. Charlus Potter was Narcissa's father's uncle, which made them, Harry, and she, second cousins. It had been Dorea Potter nee Black's brother had sired three children. One of them had been Cygnus Black, who'd sired Narcissa, along with two other daughters, in turn. It was a complicated mess, he admitted freely when asked of it.

Daphne, her sister, and mother along with Harry, Draco, and Narcissa moved along and up the winding marble staircase to another room. The children were left to their own devices as the women went off to their own discussions. "So what do you like Draco?" Astoria asked, it seemed she was quite happy to be here. Harry grabbed a chair as Draco entertained the question, and Daphne followed suit snorting at her sister's antics.

"Its such a big house,"

This was true, and Harry wondered why it was in Wiltshire. As it was the Black Family Manor was in London. He knew because he'd checked, so too was the old Potter home, abandonned by his parents because James couldn't stomach living in the home where his mother had died. Harry had never known his grandmothers so that bothered him little. "It is,"

"If it wasn't so wet we could go tour the gardens," Malfoy commented, his mother had expressly forbid going out in the mud and rain. He was looking out towards the darkened skies that covered the family estate. It was a depressing December day, all rain, and fog spreading out as far as the eye could see.

Harry's castle was even worse, the skies were nearly as black as night when he left and the rain falling far heavier, but then it set on a different locale, different terrain, "It's supposed to rain the whole week," He admitted wistfully, well at least according to the muggle weather radar or whatever.

Draco lamented being not allowed to invite some of his friends after he'd loosened up. Daphne went on to talk about how Nott was sending letters out about the return to school. She also regretted not being able to bring Tracy along. The four continued chatting for the handful of hours until Lucius, and the Greengrass men arrived, and that was when Harry noticed.

Daphne's father had two of his brothers with him. He and his youngest brother looked nearly identical, save for age, and even that was not so different. The third though, he had the Greengrass features, but one eye was black, and his facial features, and build were different, it wasn't just the eye.

He asked Daphne later the question that was nagging at him, whether the blackened eye was a result of magic. It was, in the Greengrass home there was a picture when the three brothers were younger it was before Voldemort had truly become an issue.

Dinner though was a lavish affair. The Malfoy house elves had clearly outdone themselves, even the dinner conversation was pleasant. The Malfoys had laid food enough for twenty to be well fed, and yet they'd invited only seven, which together with them only half the number of what the food could have fed. It was odd enough that Snape hadn't been invited either, or perhaps the potions master had and simply hadn't been able to make it.

Still the adults talked, or more specifically they broached the issue of Rossier. He was supposed to the Death Eater responsible for more than one attack earlier in the year. In particular though he'd been responsible for the one against Diagon Alley. No one, not even Lucius seemed to know why exactly what Rosier's end game was.

-scene break-

Well on the plus side not only had Christmas dinner had been nice, but nothing bad had happened at the Malfoys. Afterwords he'd spent the rest of the evening at the Greengrass house, despite intentions to go back to the Potter house in London. He'd been asked about Godric's hollow over dinner that night, but really he had no plans to ever rebuild it.

He'd been switching back and forth between castle and London since then. Dozens of books from both bookstores, and the muggle library were all stacked around the old study. He still had no idea what was causing the aura around London, and were it not for the fact of the castle's state he would have considered avoiding the city totally. That dark aura looming over the city made him nervous, but maybe it was nothing. Maybe, but he doubted he was lucky enough for that to be the case, and then there was still the issue of the Death Eater faction under Rosier's control that issue also troubled him.

He'd exchanged letters with Katie on the subject of Rosier. Evan Rosier was supposedly dead, and his to for that matter. The Bells though were busy with the Hollidays, and other talks with wizards it seemed. Both the MacDougals, and the Jones had sent Katie's father multiple letters, and the exchange might well have been going on before break had started. Dumbledore too had come to visit once as well, which was particularly noteworthy for the Bell family. The Greengrass family had likewise been busy both the Carrows, and the Selwyn had come calling and Lucius had visited more than once.

Su had been less busy, certainly free enough to spend an afternoon or two looking through books. Still nearly the whole of them, save the Weasley twins, had been able to exchange gifts one evening. Harry had brewed coffee with his new press that evening as well. It'd taken a while to find one he liked, and he'd actually been growing impatient. Petunia hadn't appreciated him dropping in on mornings to nick coffee from their pot, even though Vernon hadn't given a shit, especially once Harry had actually brought coffee into the house. It'd been a minor high point in his interactions with his muggle kin.

Today though was finally clear, if still damp around the castle. The smell of roasting ham, and bacon was in the air from the fires down below. He knew it was only a temporary solution, and that he'd have to find another one. It'd been a stupid oversight not to consider food for the orks, and that was why he was peering through agriculture texts from the muggles right now. Potatos seemed the best idea, that and wheat.

The fire roared and flashed green, and Katie coughed as she and Daphne both stepped through. Su had beaten them here by several hours with a massive load of books, and food from her grandmother. "So I'm going to ask are they going to bother us?" She, Katie, meant the ork, it seemed the goblins only mildly creeped her out.

"Are you really reading a book on farming?" Daphne asked looking over his shoulder, that was right he hadn't told them, "this place is a mess," She added unnecessarily.

He knew that well enough, in truth the fields that had been here long long ago had long laid unusued and were overgrown. "Its something that needs to be done," He toyed with his pen, but as it was he wasn't making a whole lot of headway. "I should have done it months ago," Harry lammented.

"Don't worry about it," Su munched on another candy, and offered the bag to the new arrivals, and looked back at the book in front of her, "We should send an owl to Professor Sprout,"

Katie nodded, "Thats a good idea, and maybe Neville too, he's good with plants."

"Sprout sure," Frankly Harry doubted whether Neville new anything about crop planting, much less what he needed to know, of course he wasn't really sure what he needed to know "But enough of this," It was nice having company over.

Both Katie, and Harry had gotten letters from the Weasley twins about well what in the letters had been called Gryfindor business. In respect for that they both abridged the matter to leave certain things out. Well some things... "So anyway Ron is still going on about how Snape is trying to steal something of Nicolas Flammel and Dumbledore's, and Harry thinks its some kind of alchemic device, probably a weapon." That'd been Harry's assumption at least.

"Well I think its a weapon, I don't think Snape is trying to steal it," Snape was not the best teacher there was no denying that, but Dumbledore was vouching for him, and for the moment Harry had no cause to doubt that... for now.

The castle obviously needed work, but it was obvious that the yard had been getting patched up for at least some months. The interior was much the same, as it was clear a number of door frames had been removed. Still at least this little stretch was livable, well once you got past the plastic tarping and the other remodeling supplies.

Daphne poked the heavy rain proof tarp, "So whats..." She shrugged, "never mind," The Slytherin decided she really didn't care as Harry did odd stuff all the time, this was probably no different. It probably served some purpose she just didn't care one way or another what all this was for. A simple impervius charm or any other number of household charms would have repelled the rain water easily, so it was probably for something else. "So what about the library, you said that was intact right?"

"It is," Harry answered, well it wasn't intact, a lot of the wood was rotted, and there were a number of shelves that were broken, "Well enough that we can look around," The magic kept it mostly intact, "Its the best place to look around." At this point he really wasn't sure what exactly it was they were looking for, Nicholas Flammel was hundreds of years old, and there was no guarantee that the old library would have anything on him to begin with.

-scene break-

Snape sighed running his fingers along the worn book. It was an old school book, it'd taken him forever to find it. It had by some accursed set of coincidence ended up with the spare texts. That would have been a disaster waiting to happen. He'd considered giving it to Draco. He'd taken mere minutes to realize that his eleven year old godson would get it, so he'd decided to go the direct route. It was why he was writing things down. Draco didn't need the potions expertise in the book, but the spells would certainly help. At least it would be an extra layer of defense, and with the Selwyn hanging around Nott, well he hoped it would be enough. In all truth he would have preferred to wait until Draco was just a little bit older, but with the way things were between the houses it was better to act now.

"Sev?" Lucius stuck his head into the study, it took a minut to adjust the dark, "damn it," he grunted stepping in, "shed some more light in here." He complained looking around the darkened study. The only source of light at present was the glow light of the fire from the intricate fireplace. "Narcissa has the tea ready, thought you might join us? Whats that?"

The potionsmaster looked up at his friend, "I was just worried about Draco, thats all, thought this might help." He commented.

Lucius walked over, "You didn't say Draco was doing bad in potions,"  
"He's not," He responded, which was true Draco was good at brewing, his preparation could use work but that was because he was young no doubt. "its the fighting at school that got me nervous."

Malfoy was silent for a moment, "Yes, thats true," He finally remarked," I've been thinking about that as well. It'd been easier if Potter had been in Slytherin,"  
"Potter wasn't sorted at all, the headmaster just stuck him in Gryfindor."

Malfoy quirked an eyebrow, intrigued, "Ah bold, a move I didn't expect I'll admit, didn't even check to be honest," He admitted, "With Potter in Gryfindor though, it does mean trouble, I mean we're close in the blood than Greengrass, and she's learning that wandless fire, you said..."

"Redmond did bring it to me first," Snape responded, he had suspected that Harry Potter had been teaching Gryfindors. He'd brought it to Dumbledore, which hadn't had the result he wanted. For the headmaster just the fact that Harry was teaching had made Dumbledore positively estatic. The headmaster thought it was great news that he had an interest in teaching others, "I admit I was surprised. There is a Ravenclaw in the group to," The potions master paused for a couple of moments, "I think Davis stops by the sessions occassionally to." He added after a minute of looking back between the book in front of him and the spare parchment.

Lucius prodded him, "Well?" He asked, "We can teach Draco what we know, if you think Selwyn is the big issue for now, and I can keep talking to the Greengrass family, we should be closer I've always said." Just as his father had always urged before him, the old families needed to stick together he'd always been told.

"I'm going to give him a list tomorrow," Severus stated, "Its a late start as it is, we should have started after the alley fight," he sighed, "You saw that melted stone, the Weasley twins are learning to, it'll be a disaster, a complete distaster." He commented irritably, "No we should start with drilling Draco on shield spells, and defensive magic, and dodging, lots of dodging."  
He tapped his chin thoughtfully, "Draco is still obsessed with quidditch, I still have my brother's old set of training bludgers, that should help." He commented, it'd be an easy way to teach him. Severus nodded, Lucius's brother... Lucius's half brother that was, was not a subject brought up often. To describe the man as bi polar would have been... understating the situation. Still all things considered Severus was not alone in that he would have preferred to deal with the man than whatever Rosier was planning.

"Do you think Rosier will get any bolder?" No body was sure who had instigated the November attacks, or why, it hadn't made any sense, it just hadn't. Raids on Muggles were common enough, sure but this had the flare of something more... it was like they were missing something  
Lucius looked at him, "Talk is that he's as gay as a schoolgirl over all this," That was charming news, Severus couldn't possibly see what was cause to be happy over all of this, "they he's," Lucius paused and swallowed, "might of gone over the edge this time. This infighting in Slytherin has absolutely got to stop, you've got to put an end to it."

"Were that I could," He lamented, "Don't mistake me, all this at the school was a mess," Even now the Weasley brat was screaming of how he was the thief... him and not Quirrel. Damn it how he could figure who's catspaw the turban wearing bastard was, "The upper years won't care about what the first years will say, not the ones about to graduate. Potter has his claws in Greengrass, and Nott is palling around with Selwyn's boy."

Back in their years Selwyn had always been a pain, he was rash, and skilled, not immensely so, but he practiced like he had a complex, and that was why the man was such a pain. "All the more reason to get Draco friends with Potter," Lucius remarked, "It'll save a bit of trouble," He gave the potions master an annoyed look when the other snorted, "What?"

"Tch, I don't know Potter seems to expect some weird convoluted sense of honor, maybe Minerva is right," He shrugged, "Maybe someone did teach him, but its, always fire, and the gloves. Its like we're missing something." The Davis girl was easier to get answers out of, and he had corrorboration from Draco, and others too. Potter always asked that weird question... what was fire, and truth be told it was a haunting earworm.

He grabbed his shoulder, "Oh enough of this, Narcissa's waiting, come on. Lets go on before its gets cold."

-scene break-

King's Cross Station was busy the cold wet morning they made their way to the station to head back to Hogwarts. Christmas, and New Years too had been an enjoyable break from the school year, but it was time to go back to Hogwarts. Christmas has been a very nice affair, as far as things went, with gifts even. Harry was eleven, and one honestly rarely turned down free shit.

Platform 9 3/4s was busy just like the muggle side was, actually more so really. Daphne looked down at the muggle bag, it was shiny silvery soft material. "Whats in the bag?"

"Lunch," He answered, it wasn't like he had anything else to carry it in, it'd been an absolute pain to pack things in. What he really wanted was the ability to freely expand the interior size while keeping the bag the same size, that'd be so useful. "I'm going to eat lunch on the train," He'd been so busy this morning he'd largely skipped breakfast, with mind on other things. "and the feast will be nice too I suppose, where are the rest?"

Daphne shrugged, "I haven't seen Tracy all day, I mean Su I saw, she's off talking to that other Chinese Ravenclaw," She must have meant Chang, unless he'd somehow missed another, which was possible if they were an upper year. The fifth years and up was about were Harry stopped paying attention, and in reality it really dropped off at the fourth years, unless he'd been introduced more than once to them, so he shrugged. "I'm pretty sure she brought food though,"

"Oh good for her, more is better after all." He added, well technically they were still early, though everyone seemed to have had the same idea, given the crowd. "lets grab a compartment." Harry stated jerking his suitcase towards the train.  
They ended up going nearly the length of the train, before finding a completely empty compartment, which was annoying, but they finally found one towards the end of the train. "So? I think we ought to go look for them,"

"Somebody is watching the compartment," Harry said, there was no way he was leaving his stuff unwatched. Daphne rolled her eyes, "You said you saw Su, maybe we can find Tracy, or Katie on the platform."

As it turned out Katie, and Tracy both ended up meeting up with Su, which had neatly cut out the need for searching for anyone, which was good because Harry hadn't felt like searching. It was also true that Su's grandmother had in fact given her granddaughter food to carry with her on the trainride to Hogwarts. It was a long wait until finally the train blew its whistle for the final time to signal it was time to roll out. "Got anymore letters from Ron?"

"No," and that was a plus, as far as Harry was considered. The red head would not shut up about Snape and how he was trying to steal whatever it was hidden at the school. That was thing Flammel was famous for making the Philosophere stone... and also something to do with dragon blood amongst other things. Well there was absolutely no way, in Harry opinion, the Philosopher's stone was at Hogwarts. It was also why he hadn't told Ron that was what Flammel was famous for, it would only cause Ron to no doubt get even more crazy. "I was hoping he'd drop all this."

"Are these dumplings?"

"Yes," Harry answered turning to Tracy, "So whats the latest with Nott?" There was a groan at the question, and Daphne and Tracy both shook their heads.

-scene break-

Professor McGonnagal was not happy about this. She thought that it was absurd to have to do this at all. Her house should have known better, but in all honesty, and it did not justify it, all the other houses were having the same problem. She'd paid two additional visits Potter. The first one had been the real issue. It had been just before Christ when she had been over to tell him to stop telling Ronald about Flammel. It had principally because the youngest Weasley boy was getting out of hand. "Welcome back, and as you classes will be be starting back tomorrow. I should expect your best behavior," She all but snarled, this shouldn't have been necessary in the first place, "I will not tolerate any more fire fights in the corridors."

"I consider that unnecessary discrimination," Fred... or maybe George spoke up abruptly.

She glared, and he went silent, as did his brother, whichever one it was, who had been opening his mouth to put in some witty remark, "Quiet you," She snapped, "This rampant fighting between the houses will go no further. I have a meeting with Dumbledore within the hour, and I will not have this house continue to start, or partake in these unwarranted fights. Now you will all go straight to your dorms, and go to sleep." there was a sizable amount of grumbling, even as the prefects started hearding people towards the stairs, and she walked away.

By the time she got to the staff meeting room she was already dreading tomorrow's transfiguration class, and for that matter the ones after it. The meeting room was already mostly settled, only a few teachers had yet to make it. Amongst those obviously Trelawyny had to make a grand dramatic interest, which Albus had actually encouraged, apparently the headmaster found it amusing. Once everyone was there though things quickly got underway.

"Welcome all," Albus remarked, "I am glad to see everyone here and in good health." he proclaimed to the assembled professors. "I know we all are tired, but we have much to discuss before we all turn in for the night. Now amongst those things, I would like to discuss lesson plans, ah Severus if you would," The potions master handed over a parchment, "this here is Severus's proposal," He briefly stopped to ask if it was the new revised one, or the one he had read before the new year. As it turned out, it was the new version, "Ah well I haven't read this version yet, but I am sure it has many good suggestions to take to heart." He declared, "In any event Severus has decided to change up his potions plan, given the resent tend towards explosions,"

McGonagal scowled at Trewlawny's silly prediction making skills. The explosions weren't just the first years, the Weasley twins had caused more than a few, "I have my own concerns, and while I am sure Severus has the right goal in mind I think we should be addressing this at the source." She ignored Snape's snort... in a very dignified manner one must be sure.

"I," It was Quirrel who spoke up, it was an amazing feat how his stammering had died down over the last month and a half, it still cropped up from time to time, but it was no where near as common as it had been. He paused. "I think this is a good idea, if we sit all the upper years down," He said nodding as he spoke. "Well I should think then that we might get somewhere."

Snape gave him, and his proposed idea for such a meeting the most irritated look possible, "I think that given the situation a tea party is absolutely insufficent." He snapped irritably, that wasn't actually what Quirrel had proposed, but as far as Snape was concerned it was close enough. They had been lucky today, most people were tired, and busy catching up, but the Hufflepuffs... the house of the badger had nearly started a fight. Sprout had not taken it well at all, and refused to even hear of the affair. Snape on the other hand saw as just another problem, sooner or later it was going to get to where they could just quietly clean it up. "We need to settle it," Once and for all, he wanted to add, but Dumbledore wouldn't hear of it if he suggested they round all the miserable little cretins up and locked them in a room to duel there problems. At this point though... that was legitimately he best idea... well besides the quitely poison them... nothing lethal obviously but just stick them in the hospital wing for a little over a week with food poisoning or something. Pomfrey would make sure they were ok, but that idea would have been even less ok with Dumbledore.

-scene break-

Harry groaned, Mcgonnagal had made them go to that damned lecture about responsibility and such, it had been Hufflepuff that had started the damned thing. McGonnagal was mad at them for some reason, she was the one who was a step from open insurection in Gryfindor. It was her fault to begin with, if she'd actually stick up for the house. That was the complaint going through the house, it was true Hermione might have a point that this was out of hand, and that yes McGonagal was trying to keep order... except the badgers had started it yesterdays... bastards, Harry sulked, he wasn't the only one amongst the First years or the house to be doing so.

"That will be enough, take your seats." McGonnagal was truly growing impatient, "today I know that many of you have other things on your mind. However," She announced, "Transfiguration is an important branch of magic, an important branch which requires concentration." It would have been nice if Dumbledore had made his suggestions earlier rather than the day before classes were scheduled to start back, but this was the best she could do on short notice. "To begin to educate you all on how important this skill of concerntration we will review what I consider a very important text when learning transfiguration."

What followed was arguably as bad as any normal day in Binn's history class, which was saying something. By the time the class let out, they couldn't get out fast enough, the homework writing was sure to be just as boring as well. It wasn't like it was going to get any easier either, Snape had also spent the first five minutes shouting at them to not even think about any kind of acting out, and if they were considering so much as a toe out of line they'd best get out now. No one was willing to try the ex death eater's patience on that issue... yet it'd probably be a few weeks before the Twins decided they wanted to have a go at it.

Flitwick was probably the sanest of the teachers though, which was a decided relief for everyone across all four houses. "Geez I thought that would never end," Dean declared as they all walked along the hall heading to the stairs. "And we've got potions tomorrow," There were a number of other groans.

Honestly Harry wasn't looking forward to it either. Potions just wasn't that interesting. Or at least was they ended up brewing in potions wasn't. Whenever he was out of the class he was too busy to consider brewing anything else. As he was thinking on that issue, Ron decided to start shouting at Herminone, which all things considered wasn't that unheard of for the two of them.

"I'm telling you Snape is up to something." Hermione just groaned in response, rolling her eyes, she wasn't the only one tired of hearing this, either. Harry looked at the red head, and walked off, he didn't want to hear it.

"Hey Potter, we need a word." Personally Harry would rather have to talk to Selwyn, but still he looked at the Hufflepuff. "You mind if maybe talk to some of the other Lions, you know for us."

He almost wished they had their wands out, but they didn't, "Why," He almost wished they'd start another fight... almost, and it didn't have anything to do with the Gryfindors who had followed after him.

"I mean if you just take us to Professor McGonagal that'd be fine" As it turned out Sprout was pushing for the Hufflepuffs to apologize for the... misunderstanding yesterday. It wasn't like yesterday had been that bad, he'd definitely heard that the infighting in Slytherin was worse. It did tell the Gryfindors that the Hufflepuffs must have liked Sprout more than Gryfindor liked McGongagal considering the badger head of house wasn't looming over them making them apologize, which given the mood in Gryfindor would have been what would have happened. Grudgingly Harry turned, Hufflepuff had started a shoving match in the hall on the first day back this whole week everyone had been sending them dirty looks, well aparently that was enough for Sprout to finally say enough was enough.

-scene break-

For the moment things were free floating with the Hufflepuffs. Naturally as with all the houses there were those who were disaffected, but for the moment they were back to the status quo. Well except that Ron had end up mentioning to Hermione, that Flammel was an alchemist, and well that had ended up narrowing the search down

Flitwick, the Ravenclaw head of house was well meaning, but it could be honestly said that his attempts to enliven the classroom enviroment through the use of charms just reminded people of just how things were. Of course this was also probably because Quirrel was taking the same approaching, they might even have been collaborating together to try and get the students to relax.

Just like Daphne despised being that little splash of emerald amongst the sea of crimson. Still for the most part the third week back had been a lot more sereen than the others, which was a distinct improvement. It also reflected some of the temporary rules put into place for now though most members of house didn't flount the don't travel without a partner. Officially the rule didn't insist on a member of ones own house, but in practice that was what it boiled down to when it came to walking the halls.

Today though wasn't much difference. Or rather it wouldn't have been if they weren't all marching down to go watch the quidditch match, that was why they were in such a big group. Well it was the reason because one they were playing Hufflepuff, and two Snape was the referee for the game, which meant everyone expected something bad to happen. As things went it wasn't an unfounded concern considering what had happened to Neville yesterday. Of course someone had quickly pointed out that, one Neville had been alone at the time, and two Neville was kind of an easy target even for first years. It had apparently been Malfoy, apparently he was in a foul mood about something or other, though there was no telling what exactly, though it was clear Malfoy hated the change up the school.

It was least a nice day out, the rain had cleared up, and it was at least semi dry. As it was the quidditch pitch was already packed with some people having gotten there early to get their preferred seats. "Well good luck," Harry commented to the twins, and Katie, as he eyed the swarm of Hufflepuffs.

"Its not right," Richard declared in an annoyed whisper, "We shouldn't have to worry about the puffs stabbing us in the back like this. Its Slytherin... uh no offense, uh its Snape, and those dark wankers we should have to worry about. Now though the bloody badgers have gotten snippy." He complained to a murmur of agreement amongst the other members of the house of the lion, "I mean really this is a mess." He hit his hand in his palm, "I mean it boys we really need to do something about this, get this air cleared, because McGonagal isn't going to do anything about all of this, she is still so keen on jumping down our throats."

As far as things went he was preaching to the choir as the expression went. "We've got a match to win Richard," George said straightening, "We're going to do that first,"

"Just keep an eye out make sure none of this gets out of hand." Fred added, "We should have this in the bag in no time at all." All they needed to do was beat Hufflepuff into the ground.

No big sweat as long as the crowd didn't star rioting it'd be an easy win, "Yeah lets go, win one for the real lions," George grunted jerking his head towards the lockers, "Come on," He said grinning as started walking. It certainly put the other Gryfindors in higher spirits.

On the field Snape groaned face palming at hearing the cheers start from the Gryfindors. He galnced at the mass of yellow ties, as the Hufflebuffs started shouting in response. Of all the time for Hooch to take some time away from the school.

-scene break-

helltanz notes: I believe this is one of the more fundamentally important setting building chapters, and focuses on other points of view in accordance with that.


	17. Chapter 17 Spring Tensions I

-scene break-

The Gryffindor Hufflepuff game had gone well. Not that any in the House of the Lion had expected a different outcome, even with Snape refereeing. So on the plus side it'd been a nice rest of the weekend. That pleasant, peaceful weekend did not in any way explain why he was spending the first Monday of the month in Dumbledore's office, but then again he had wanted to ask Dumbledore some questions anyway. It seemed though Dumbledore had questions of his own.

As it happened the Centaurs swore oaths by the stars in the sky. The books that he had read on the subject had said it was because the stars were always there, that they moved so slowly that it could take them thousands of years to move an inch. Or so it was said at least.

It seemed though that Mars had kept on getting brighter, enough that the Centaurs in the Forrest had brought it to Dumbledore. It seemed a warning that Dumbledore was taking seriously at least, which might just meant the headmaster was being cautious or there was something serious to centaur warnings. Well time would tell.

The old headmaster wasn't toying with something when Harry got in, but he did look rather pensive pondering over a burdensomely heavy looking book sprawled over his desk. "Ah Harry right on time, I should think," He commented closing the book with a thud as the cover shut. "I know that against all hopes that things haven't quieted down, which is the pity," The rumor going around was that Dumbledore had scheduled meetings with the Head Boys of each house on Sunday, but given Harry hadn't talked to the Gryffindor Head Boy he had no way of knowing whether such was the case. In any event Dumbledore took a minute to adjust his glasses, "While I am sure there is a lot to discuss, I would begin with that while many have begin to think otherwise Hogwarts defenses are quite formidable. However they are not perfect, and there are a number of things that Minerva would like me to discuss. I know that certain issues have been skipped over,"

"Like the sorting thing?" Most of the muggleborns hadn't noticed, and purebloods it hadn't been such a big deal. A Potter in Gryffindor hardly a shock. It still had gotten noticed, and Harry had found out about the traditional sorting ceremony eventually.

Dumbledore took it instride, "Yes, that, amongst other things, the wand to" He'd gotten a letter from Ollivander earlier just before the Holidays, and Minerva as well. He hadn't brought it up prior to this because well it was an easily explained oversight, the attack on Diagon Alley and all neatly explained failing to get a wand, "but lets begin with the sorting then." The headmaster pulled the ragged patched hat from the shelf, "You see the Founders of Hogwarts needed a way to sort incoming students impartially, occasionally there were exceptions to this," Not that he was going to bring up these exceptions were by no means recent, but at least he could make a claim to prescedence if pushed on the issue. "In your particular case, and given the situation I thought that well simply placing you in your parents' house was a quick and expedient way of settling the matter given Pomfrey thought you should be in the Hospital Wing."

"... ok..." Harry did a half blinking gesture, right magic hat sorted people he'd already known it did that. He had kind of pondered on the reasoning behind missing the sorting... briefly when it had been brought up in conversation briefly months before, but it just hadnt' been that interesting a subject to bother with.

Dumbledore took the opportunity presented to change the subject, "I know Minvera has brought up the matter of not growing up in the Wizarding World," He paused, "I know that it bothers you, but growing up in the muggle world was the best thing. There is old magic in blood, and the Dursleys, Petunia, and your cousin are your closest kin. There is magic there, protection from all the terrors our world could offer while you were growing up. Its true you've got other family, the Potters are old blood, yes but," Dumbledore shook his head sadly. When he'd been a boy there'd been a dozen Potter branches, by the time he was a man it'd been down to half that, and not just because of war and fighting. By the time Grindelwald had fallen six branches had been whittled away, married into other pureblood wizard lines, or dead against Grindelwald's men. Those had been hard times, and then Tom had risen. "these last two centuries have been hard, and your closest wizard kin are cousins of yours who sided with the Dark Lord." That was the honest truth, the Blacks especially had gone over to Voldemort during the last war.

So Dumbledore went on. He broached the subject of magic further, and teaching amongst other things, and all the wonders of teaching others, but also of the resposibility. The headmaster once again brought up that in the dark times of Voldemort's school years, when Grindlewald had been running amuck. What Dumbledore had gone about was magic, not especially dark magic, but powerful magic that not every was truly ready for, but studies because they felt they had to. Finally though he broached the last issue.

Fluffy the cerberus, and whatever he was guarding"The item Nicolas left here is perfectly safe, and I have told the Head Boy for your own as much," the headmaster didn't even seem to be bothered by this, "Naturally though there is a tendency to rashness,"  
"Its a weapon isn't it," Harry asked, the issue had been bothering not as much as others, but the idea it was being brought up left him anxious with curiousity.  
The older wizard perked, "I'm sorry what was that?"

"I asked if Flammel's thing is a weapon, its something to do with Alchemy?"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "It is something to do with Alchemy yes, but not a weapon," he took a minute to pause to consider, "well not in the conventional sense I suppose, but I suppose it could be used as one."

That sounded like a yes to Harry.

-scene break-

Quirrel seemed to have come down with something over the next couple of weeks, as he started to loose some weight, and was rather pallid in color. Ron naturally claimed that Snape was torturing the professor for the secrets of whatever was under Fluffy's trapdoor, which was a tad absurd even by Ron's standards. The muggleborns figured it was probably just the floo, especially for when he had had the coughing fits the first week of February.

The meeting with Dumbledore that Harry had, had went well. The same could not be said for Ron, who for whatever reason seemed to think Snape had somehow hoodwinked Dumbledore. In all honesty though Ron was probably just sore over the recent potion classes. Thankfully those had been wonderfully lacking in explosions.

Harry had had other things on his mind, "You have a tapestry right?" She asked. Most Pureblood families did after all. "Can't you just look this up,"

"I don't care when they died," What was important was how they lived, that and one was at school and couldn't get back to London easily, not without asking McGonnagal. There was little chance she'd allow him an excursion to London and he knew it. So for now he was reading through texts in the library. "Did you know Malfoy is related to me?"

Daphne looked at him, "You didn't?"

"No," He rolled his eyes. In truth this was the first serious delving into the matter, and surprisingly Draco was reasonably close. Draco was like his grand nephew or something, that was kind of weird, but then again a couple of members of Voldemort's inner circle had been first or second cousins as well.

Hermione swung around, "So has there been any luck with you guys about Flammel? That lead about being an alchemist really helped narrow it down, did you know he worked with-"  
"Dumbledore yes we did," It was included on the back of ruddy Chocolate Frog cards, of course they knew especially after the massive explosion, not literally, of candy on Valentine's day the past week. "twelve uses for dragon's blood, and all that," Harry had looked it up, as it was there were other uses for Dragon Blood, but Dumbledore and Flammel togethers research had been much more profound a discovery. It had also been research that had been revolutionary for the time. Today though well it was news that only accademics cared about, because Dragonblood while it had uses in various speciality fields was to rare to be abundantly available, and its uses just weren't mainstream enough to reach the bulk of the wizarding population. This was especially true given that Dragonsblood was ministry constrolled substance.

Hermione proceeded to stick her nose into what he was reading. Ronald had stopped being such a prat when he figured that the bushy haired witch was good at researching stuff, and well the situation with the other houses helped integrate the Gryffindors together. "So whats all this?"

"Its family history."

"Well charms is like in fifteen minues," Hermione pointed out hefting her own book bag, and Harry groaned, and reached down.

He picked up his bag and dropped it on the table. She had a point, and with the way things were while skipping might have been sorely tempting, "What do you have?"  
"Binns, its no big deal," Daphne responded, "I can handle reading this,"

For once was wishing he actually had History to look forward to. On the plus Charms would probably be interesting enough... maybe depending on what all they had to go over. The class was less theory heavy than Transfiguration tended to be. "I'll see you after then," Charms well there was no telling. Some times it was stuff like levitation, and others it turned into stuff for household upkeep... which didn't interest Harry at all... well most of it the tea charm was semi useful... he supposed. Still class was class, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to potions tomorrow either, Harry headed out of the library and start towards the Charms Corridor on the third floor.

Harry Potter was hardly the only one, and not just in the House of the Lion, that was dreading Potions with Snape down in the Dungeons.

Most the first years were dreading the upcoming double session on Friday with the Slytherins. Of course the Slytherins weren't looking forward to it either, word was one of the upper years classes on Wednesday had started something with Snape. Nobody seemed to be able to be able to agree on just what had happened. Everyone could agree that Snape was in a foul mood, probably as a result of whatever it was that had happened.

Charms though, well that was another story. First thing first was getting settled. A couple of people scrambled to make some last minute changes or additions to their homework before the bell tolled signaling the start of class, and the dimunitive professor scurried about to call for turn in. After the roll call, and the homework collection Flitwick started handing back graded homework, and that either got people compliments or for some to work harder. For the most part though today's class was just book work, reading up for what they were going to be covering next week. Naturally this meant Harry read the section, and went back to look at his returned homework.

This branch of magic had useful theoretical applications. Katie had said that most the elemental related magics she could think of all fell under the broad classification of Charms. Reviewing the first, and second year charms textbook more or less confirmed this. They'd even gone over a fire creation spell as well, that'd gone on to bring up the subject of wandless magic, and silent casting. It turned out Flitwick could do it as well, though he was more adept at silent casting, than not using his wand. Dumbledore was supposed to be able to conjure fire without needing his wand or an incantation amongst other spells as well.

Still today's class was mostly theory, so everybody was glad to get out of it when it was over. When they got out there was one of the older Gryfindors waiting for them, "Meetings in the common room, come on, all of you." He grunted, "Hurry up,"It was like he didn't want Flitwick noticing he was leading them off. He also seemed rather instant enough that even Hermione didn't object to much, which was saying a lot considering she'd been spending much of her time studying.

Richard was pacing in front of the fire by the time they got there, "We don't got much time I'm afraid, teachers going to notice something soon," He stated hurriedly, "And we can't keep that quisling Percy busy for much longer. This is how it is, we've got to do something, whole school is going ruddy mad. This is a rally for all the true lions of Hogwarts." Westerman declared, "The crows, and the snakes are doing the same thing," He punched his palm, "I'm sure of it. We've got to teach the snakes a lesson. We know that there is something about Alchemy, Nicholas Flammel or whatever. I think its a book myself, but we don't know. What we know is that we cant let those dark buggers get it."

Richard's proclamation proved accurate enough, while not as dramatic as Gryffindors 'rally for true lions' a lot of the Ravenclaws had gotten together. Slytherins had also had some kind of conversation, and though there was no evidence to it well it was reasonable the badgers probably had as well. The big touch off had been the following Monday. A couple of third years who had been with Fred and George had gotten caught up after a prank on the Slytherins.

Some Slytherin from their upper years had jumped in, and put two in the Hospital wing for three whole days, when all the rest had mostly gotten away with scratches, and bruises. Still that had been just because everyone had been lucky.

"Its going to get worse,"

That was a statement of the obvious if there ever was one, Harry thought, Richard was talking about getting past Fluffy and having a look around. Then again he was also talking about creating a Lion Defense Squad, and training in magic. "They're talking about watching out for the the Slytherins, like thats going to do much good." Watch out for the whole rest of the school was more like it, and then there was all the talk of the Death Eaters. Harry grabbed at his coffee, the caffeine was amazing he could stay up all night, and class, and nap in the afternoon. It was great. "Then there is all the other shit." He grunted, "I mean-,"  
"I know, Richard and some of the others are blabbering on about securing what is ours," Katie responded, and that was just one side of the argument. That didn't even bring up Percy. "Having the teachers patrol the school its pointless."

It rather was most the fights had been in the morning, or afternoon between classes mainly, "Yeah well they also cancelled our Hogsmeade weekend this weekend, can you believe that," Fred grunted irritably, "I was looking forward to that." He grumbled.

-scene break-

March had started off like a cool down period. The new measures the teachers had introduced had calmed things down, and the third years and up had gotten their visiting the village privileges back, which had made a lot of people happy. So happy that there hadn't been any incidents in Hogsmeade, which must have been a good sign. There was one problem with the optimists. That was that the older years were still sore, and Richard still wanted to get past the defenses.

"Could you pass your homework over, I want to look at it."

He looked up from his notebook, and kicked his bag over, and went back to writing. What did he care if Daphne's tag along wanted to look at his charms paper, it had been a boring assignment any way. Flitwick had given Gryfindor a couple extra points for the 'fire trick' during their review, and well Su, and Daphne would probably get points for their houses if they hadn't already. "Its not that interesting," If he got compared to his mother one more time he was going to kill Flitwick, he thought it was annoying, and more than that it didn't help. He'd never known the woman but getting told repeatedly about oh Lily was a genius at charms was not helping his concentration.

He'd, when he'd been younger searched foolishly Privet Drive for anything of his mother's. Now that he thought about it that had been rather stupid Vernon had bought the house from a realtor friend when Petunia had been pregnant with Dudley. So looking back obviously none of his mother's stuff would be there. He'd never met his maternal grandparents, but obviously it would be there he could find stuff.

Daphne looked at him, "He still-"  
"Yes," He hissed back snipilly, "Yeah," He added a bit softer in tone, "Alright hand it over," Harry sat the notebook aside and took the potions text, "This is what Snape has you all brewing, fire resistance potions, wow." It showed some foresight. Everyone in the damn school seemed to be able to cast incedio, the fire creation charm. "And he's doing this because he thinks, my usage will encourage the others?"  
She nodded, "Yes, Snape thinks that the Gryffindors will attempt to show off. He also has us drilling the Flame Freezing charm, we got extra points from Flitwick for that,"

"Fat lot of good that will do," Fred said with a snort, "The charm I mean, Harry throws fire way to fast for the charm to work."

Daphne rolled her eyes, "I think Professor Snape is intending it to help for people other than Harry to be throwing the fireballs."

"eh," George shrugged, "Well you know, maybe Snape's right, we'll see, don't see why you got to worry," The red head remarked, "You've got basic wandless fireball creation down, throw that and even most The House will scatter out of the way," By The House naturally he meant his own house of Gryffindor, "Hufflepuff of course would probably bolt immediately."

His brother looked back, "Ravenclaw might be the problem, though. He looked over, "Hey Su you think they're taking the same precautions." She nodded, not really bothering to look up from her own book, "Yeah figures, Flitwick is the charms professor, and their head of house. Its going to be a mess."

That was the one thing everyone aggreed on. "Ok enough of this," Katie called out, "I'm tired of hearing of Richard's nonsense plans, and the other houses picking fights," The other last Gryffindor in the group had her transfiguration book out in front of her, and had spent the better part of the morning quizing Fred and George on the end of year tests. "We've got tests coming up, and quiditch to practice for, and my mom wants me to make sure to do really well in McGonnagal's class." That was the issue McGonnagal had gone and sent out letters to parents, of the Gryffindors, which had resulted in a few howlers from the more uptight parents. It had been an unpleasant way to start the week for sure.

"You know they're just going to keep piling the homework on," George interjected, "I mean Easter hols aren't even here yet,"  
His brother nodded, "She's right about Quiditch though, we smashed Hufflepuff good, which again still leaves Ravenclaw, and the Snakes." The truth was though... the constant loss of points meant that house scores were some of the lowest they'd been in over a century. It was just one small consequence to all the infighting. "You should come to practice Harry,"  
"Yeah what if the Snakes try something," George, and Fred both laughed, "Thats what Wood is all worried about, the big bad snakes creeping out of the pitch's stands and jumping on us,"

Harry shrugged, and Daphne looked up rolling her eyes, "So do you think its true Draco's dad is killing off members of the Black Family."

"Tch, yeah right Aunt Lucy never was in the best of health, to begin with," Fred grunted, "She was always getting sick,"

Daphne came him a look, and shoved the Daily Prophet article at him, it was dated this past tuesday and had the usual pro Pureblood spin, "Cygnus Black died last sunday, he along with Lucretia, and Arcturus make him the third Black dead this year."

"Well maybe Harry is killing them," Fred joked, "the Blacks were wankers anyway, all of them backed the dark lord, I mean Aunt Lucy was a bit batty, but dad always said Arcturus was a wanker and a big supporter of the pureblood movement."

George turned, and chuckled, "So Harry have you been sneaking off at night to bump off evil relatives in the dead night?" Harry glared at him, "No? Well curses maybe it is old Lucius Malfoy if Harry isn't doing it." George joked, "its not really a big deal. I mean sure they weren't that old, but even Lucius Malfoy can't be responsible for every evil in the world." In truth Daphne was only concerned, because Harry had started looking into other relatives in the wizarding world. "So Harry whats all this about you fixing up a castle?"

-scene break-

"So Hagrid has a dragon?" Katie raised an eyebrow... Hagrid lived in a wooden cottage, mind you a very large cottage, but it was still made out of wood. Common sense alone should have told him that was a really bad idea.

There was some hemming, and hawing, from the other Gryffindor/ It was one of the twins' friends who had come up to them, "Well... its not actually a dragon. Well it is is but it hasn't hatched yet, its a dragon egg." Well that was only slightly better, as far as things went.

"That still seems like a bad idea," She added a bit unnecessarily, especially since the other Gryffindor had been clear that Hagrid was trying to hatch the thing.

Harry looked up, well guess he wouldn't be going to Hagrid's for a while "Well I'm not going down there," As far as he was concerned, magic uses for dragon blood aside, which could probably go buy at the store... hypothetically... maybe, dragons and him didn't need to be anywhere in close proximity. They were giant firebreathing engines of destruction, and he'd had enough problem from the troll. "Dragons, and me, probably don't mix well," Right now though he was more annoyed about not buying more coffee when he'd been off for Christmas. Then again he had no idea that two months worth of coffee was so much... then again there was only so much he could fit into the enchanted trunk. That was actually saying something given that it was larger on the inside than outside... oops. He needed to learn that shrinking charm for food soon, especially if he was going to bring enough for next year.

"Are you really making a shopping list?" Katie asked looking over his shoulder, "Should you really be doing that now?"

"I'm sending a letter to my aunt, she goes grocery shopping all the time," Freaking Petunia went shopping several times a week, it wasn't even like he was asking that much of her. He was even bringing money, he certainly didn't see what the problem was. "besides everyone will be going to the Ravenclaw Slytherin Game it won't be a big deal." He'd already talked with the twins, and they'd pointed him to the quickest way out of the school. It wasn't like he wanted to go down to Surrey, but he needed a new set of pens along with other things. If he didn't go he'd also probably run out of loose leaf paper by easter. "Anyway not like there is a choice."

"You're going to let Fred and George help Ron help Hagrid with hatching a dragon egg," She reitereated, "Which will hatch into a baby dragon,"

Now that she put it that way, "Well I'll just be gone for a couple hours at most it should be that big of a deal."

"Dragon egg," She repeated a bit more forcefully, and she did kind of have a point, truth be told about just how badly this could go sideways, "Fred and George are talking about looking stuff up for dragon care, and potions that use dragon scales to use in pranks."

On the other hand it was still a dragon, "I'm going to go grab a book on dragons from the library I think," If he lucky he could read it by Friday, on the other hand knowing his luck dragons probably grew absurdly fast, and countless other benefits. It wasn't like Richard, who everyone was calling the heart of the lion, wasn't enough of a problem, or any of the other issues.

As it stood the library was a weird mix of open space, and people crammed together. All four houses had taken the effort the to self segregate. One of the Gryffindors, probably Katie or maybe one of the twin's the year mates, tossed his fist in the air in greeting. One of the upper years waved him over.

"Snape gave Gwendelowyn." Harry assumed it was probably one of the upper year Slytherins, definitely someone in fifth year or above, but he still had no idea who she was. "a pass into the restricted section," The upper year remarked, "Don't like it, think we out to be careful." he whispered, "What are you here for?"

Harry sat down, "Dragons, you know any books on them," He asked, as it was it couldn't hurt to ask, and it might save him some time.

"You could hit the care of magical creatures section," He shrugged glanced at Harry, "well unless your looking something a bit more practical, then try the defense section book on the second shelf deals with rogue creatures." He shrugged, "There are some books by former dragon killers, that probably could help, if thats what you're looking for. Just watch out, don't think they'll start anything but after well you know..." The older Gryffindor jerked shoulders a bit.

Harry nodded and looked at the shelves, well it either this or run the risk of being unprepared for a dragon.

It was a minor thing, but it still annoyed him just a bit to have had to have the issue pointed out, but Katie had a point as far as things went. The care of magical creatures section was fairly expansive, though it was rather obvious which sections got the most use. Kettleburn, from the rumors, taught the same creatures in sequence. Of course the rumors also said it was an interesting class, with plenty of interesting creatures.

Maybe it, the dragon, had been Dumbledore's idea. Or rather maybe Hagrid was going to hatch it and use it help defend whatever it was of Flammel's that was at the school. There was some rumors going around the school that it was a or the philosopher stone, but Harry doubted that. For one it would make no sense. Of course Harry was basing that argument on the assumption that the stone was Flammel's key to immortality, if Flammel didn't need the stone it might make sense to stash at the school.

Harry had asked Dumbledore why Alchemy wasn't taught at Hogwarts, and the response had been that it wasn't suited for young wizards. So maybe whatever it was being protected was an alchemic experiment, maybe they neededd something from a dragon. That could explain why they needed the dragon. He ran his hand along the rows of books looking for one with a title that jumped out at him, and didn't really see anything, so much for the second row. He stood up, and went on to the next stooped row of books, this looked slightly more promising.

-scene break-

On another day in another part of the castle other discussions were ongoing. It was one more day closer to the very anticipated quidditch match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. It was a bit of a shake up compared to the normal schedule but everyone good agree that this year had been a mess, and sports had been no exception. "Lucius you cannot keep doing this." Snape didn't mind seeing Lucius, but he was worried about the man's prescence touching off another spat of hostilities between the students.

"What coming to the school, I will if all this keeps up," The blonde shot back, "Its bad enough," he sighed, "Sev was it this bad when we were at school," Because he was honest he didn't remember it being this bad. Of course he could just be biased, Draco was a bit on the lazy. Lucius's father had been a lot harsher when it came to drilling magic into son, and so Lucius had been a lot better at magic, and duelling by the things heated up. Except there was the fact that Draco was only a first year, where as Lucius had been far closer to graduating.

The potions master shook his head, "This is a lot worse, just on scale." Back when they'd been in school no one had been openly fighting, until the absolute worst of it. These days though all the houses were at each others throats, "I told you Lucius I'm taking precautions. I am trying to take all possible precautions,"

"So about Westerman then? Lets start there,"  
Snape shrugged, "I'm more worried, about next year. He's a sixth year right now." He sighed, "well he plays at being the knight in shining armor," The problem was that it was precisely kind of rhetoric got all the Lions loud and active for the cause. It was just that kind of attitude that they liked to see, and how they liked to think of themselves as. "Westerman shouldn't be an issue, if he does try and take a page out of Potter with the Fire, I think I've got that covered."

"Its good practice for all of them anyway." Lucius agreed. "I know Narcissa doesn't like it. She didn't like going to Lucretia's funeral either, it was distressing. Cassiopeia made a showing, first time I've seen the woman outside in years," Lucius shook his head, "She was prattling on about how we needed to be strong in these troubled times. I always wondered if Sirius had ever gotten some witch knocked up, but Cassiopeia is talking about getting all the young Black children together, evne Andromeda's girl."

Snape grimaced, "I doubt Black's bastards would be welcome, though honestly he could have had more than a few. Not really a way to tell without the ledger, or his blood."

"Its not a big deal," Lucius remarked, "just small talk, it does bring up the issue of sucession you know, Sirius being imprisoned." It was a complicated matter, "Officially he's the one, but well in practice its the same as ever."

The potions master eyed him, "Draco's not ready, he needs years at least, before he could even hope to pose a claim to the holdings. I mean there is talk Potter is trying to rebuild his family's castle, but thats probably just talk." Snape commented.

"The Black Family has lands out in the country though," Lucius remarked, the lands were no doubt fallow from disuse, but... "if things really do get worse then Draco could go there, you and him. He could use the time to train. Rosier isn't going to stop, and the ministry doesn't know what to do. We should have killed him years ago." The Old Rose had faked his death, and then, they suspected taken polyjuice with his son's hair and gone down fighting against the ministry. It'd given Evan Rosier the chance to escape, and gather some of the Death Eaters, and they were the problem now.

-scene break—


	18. Chapter 18 Spring Tensions II

Helltanz's notes: this chapter was notably complicated by writers block, and parts of it are hardly my best.

-scene break-

Fred did a few last minute checks over his preparations. He and his brother were running awefully low on time. Easter break was nearly upon them, and of course with Easter here is was time to spread a little Holiday Cheer, in their own special way of course. Naturally this meant pranking. His brother flashed a thumbs up and flicked his wand as dung bombs lifted up into the air over the archway of the hall.

McGonnagal was still going on about how they should be acting, but really they thought about how she was acting. So it was time to strike back, hit the snakes without even being on sight. For all that the Headmaster was wise, and old he was still going on about House uniting in times of strife, and how the school needed to do the same. Well he was proving half right the houses were uniting in a time of strife, but it didn't look like the school was going to follow any time soon.

The thing about this prank was that it was ingenious. It was time delayed, the Weasley's were going to back off after they finished setting up. Then they go off, the charms would trigger when the conditions were met, during the break. It was a craft bit of spell work for sure, and Fred was sure it'd catch the optimum number of Slytherins in the prank, because after all this hallway lead straight to the dungeons.

"We're done here, its all set." George remarked finishing the last bit of spellwork application to the last set. No body would be looking for spell hidden stuff, and people hardly looked up anyway so it was the perfect surprise.

Fred nodded, "Lets get out of here then," The two headed quickly away and back towards the safety of the areas of the castle around Gryffindor tower. For all the daring that the fighting, and attacks by the snakes there had been no attacks around their dorms. At the same time of course there had been no attacks at the Slytherin dorms either. They'd considered pranking the entrance, but even with the maruaders map it'd be too risky to try and set something up.

The twins looked around, no one else was around for the minute when the approached the portrait of the Fat Lady that lead into the Common Room, and thus up to the dorms. They'd passed a couple of the upper years, who were free from class 'patrolling'. The prefects, Percy more than others, were considered unreliable or stooges at best in the present situation. So Richard along with some of the others had organzied 'Pride Patrols' or some such. It was meant to give a warning if Slythering mounted an attack, which was nonsensical to begin with, but it at least let the older years look like they were doing something proactive.

Fred grunted the password, and the two jumped through the portrait hole. Inside things were a lot busier than outside. The teachers had assigned a lot more work, maybe even more so than normal to try and keep people busy over the break. Of course the break would say how things would play out of course.

The twins laughed as they safely settled by the fire. The snakes would never know what hit them once it went off. The tweaks to the Marauder developed control charm was only a minor improvement, but it prevented any unwanted interfence from the other parts of the prank. There was no way the snakes would be able to dodge the trap. They'd been extra careful to test everything before hand on the spellwork. It'd taken most the past month to tweak the spell to get it the way they needed it. If this worked well they could use this same framework of spells to prep better, more impressive pranks. Still paying the Slytherins back would be a good first test run.

"Where have you guys been?"

It was Lee Jordan who was asking, and the two looked at each other, "No where in particular." Fred remarked, "Someone looking for us, Lee?"

"No, nothing like that." He remarked, well no one but him. Lee had crushed whatever small part of him didn't like the way things were playing out. He'd been glad Gryffindor was doing well in Quidditch there was no denying that, but there was a voice in the back of his head nagging him that all of this was getting out of hand. "No, I just wanted to talk to you."

-scene break-

Harry gasped, his face was flushed from the burn of energy, and all the magic spent. It had been both exhilirating, and exhausting as only the expenditure of so much magic could be. He'd never teleported that far, and if he didn't need to go back he wouldn't plan on doing it any time soon. His head was pounding all the same from the blur of magic. He knew he'd need a minute to get himself straightened out, maybe sit down.

It was a miserable wet and rainy day in Surrey unfortunately, not that Hogwarts would really be that much better weather wise. He'd sent Petunia a letter earlier in the week, surprisingly she'd responded fairly quickly, but then again he'd basically said he was going to stop by for grocery shopping. Of course her response hadn't been at all what he'd expected, when he had arrived in the backyard with his shopping list.

There was a doctor waiting a Privet. A shrink, a pyschologist, or psyichiatry Harry wasn't sure which of them the man was, of all things. It took some effort not to loose it, the notion of psychology bothered him on a more basic level. Of course then the guy had started talking and that had made things easier, and harder at the same time. Petunia, and Vernon wanted little part in the man's discussion, as to be expected, but the news he brought regarded magic. The news was not the kind of thing that he'd expected to here. It was the kind of news that was going to tie him down for hours longer than he expected. Of course Petunia hadn't wanted to wait, but the trip itself had left him panting and out of breath for nearly an hour.

It was Dudley of all people who broke the silence after Harry had gotten back with his aunt from the grocery store. "So one of your wi- you know friends went to a head doctor?" Dudley could show some tact when he needed to, he also knew that his dad did not want the word wizard uttered in the house. His cousin took to munching on a bar of chocolate as he waited for a response. Petunia had bought Dudley plenty of sweets when they'd gone to the store.

"So it seems," It didn't make any sense to him either. Alex had never seemed the type, but then again they'd gone their separate ways well over a year ago, and supposedly that had been when the other had started getting treatment. "I," Don't know was what he wanted to say, all this had him at a loss this wasn't something he could explain. "Its got some importance," There had to be something important, he refused to believe something like this wasn't important, just like the book. It had to be a clue it had to be.

This was all Harry's opinion of course. The shrink really did think he could, and did want to help with the situation. He also knew that he had wandered into a situation where there was something completely out of control in play; magic. He lost his chance to help the first one. The first one had gone and unleashed a fire that burned through anything it touched, but he did have a clue. The first one had said he was going North, and he'd been obsessed with the Norse, and vikings, and the legends of Scandinvaia. It wasn't the best lead he had to help his patient though. His best lead had led him to back track to Surrey. Everything he'd shared with Harry he honestly hoped would help come to a solution.

Harry had burned, melted a tin cup into charred and blackened piece of slag after gtting the news. It didn't make any ruddy sense. Myths were always a big thing, but some of this wasn't making a whole lot of sense. All of this kept diving further into the muggle things, and yet Alex was now supposedly going off to look for magic far to the north.

Then there was the constant warnings from the Centaurs as well, never mind the Death Eaters. The message was still clear that Mars was getting brighter. All the astronomy classes had noticed it already, and the weirdness had already prompted the crazy divination teacher to start making appearances regularly at meal time where she prattled on about doom and gloom. Unfortunately the crazy bat might have had a point. Harry wasn't looking forward to heading to dinner as a result, as the weirdo rotated between eating and rambling on as she wandered around the great hall. She been rambling on aobut cursed magics, and black wings, and doom, doom, doom, doom, and more doom waiting to befall the wizarding world.

It wasn't as if the clue of the book had been bad enough, now this. There was no telling what kind of weird ideas talking to that muggle shrink had put in his head. The image of that gold and black trefoil was held tightly in his mind's eye. His toes curled in his shoes reflexively, the warning for nuclear material. He'd kept the book in the bag, but he'd asked about it. Asked the shrink at least about what it could mean. He really didn't like the possible answers. So for the moment he was going to ignore it. It was a choice that he made that he would regret down the road, but for now it was his choice.

He had the food, and fresh paper, and plenty of pens amongst other things for school. He had everything hed' come to get and more. He'd even found a book on gardening at the local mart, which probably wasn't going to be that helpful but it was another option to try. Not that he really expected orcs to like eating tomatoes... but that didn't really matter. Harry collected everything he'd bought, and focused his magic around him. He had decided to make two trips, he'd teleport with half of the supplies for the castle distribute it, and come back to number four, and then repeat. When he was done he'd rest for an hour, and then teleport back to Hogsmeade. He figured the magic absorbing materials in his clothing had probably played a major role in exhausting him the first time, which wouldn't be as much of an issue this time.

-scene break-

The thing about break was that it was supposed to be relaxing. That had gone at the window when the professors had decided to heep so much work on them. This however, this was pure chaos undiluted uncontrolled melee. Some people weren't even bothering to throw spells anymore and were just throwing fists or even books. The problem though was the people who could still display the good sense to use their wands.

Some of that was just sparks, mainly from first years, and that was only a handful. Even amongst the first years most of those who could keep their wands were able to cast the fire charm. Draco had never been more greatful for 'Uncle' Severus's precautions as he was now. As another wave of fire splashed across his sleeve failing to over take the protective charms cast on his robes. Damned Gryffindors, he thought, there were always starting things.

The fight had broken out along one of the upper wing corridors on the fifth floor well away from the stairs, and there was no sign of teachers. Hogwarts was a massive castle after all, so even if they knew there was a fight getting here might take some time. Katie ducked around the corner, it didn't make sense a fight like this should not have been possible. Fred's smoke spell had gotten some space in between them and the Slytherins for the moment, but that wasn't to last to long as the Slytherin's seemed too pissed off to actually care. Still she knew this couldn't go on, but the question was how to get free from this. What was worse was that there was no sign of help forthcoming.

George vocalized the question she had been wondering, "Any idea where Harry is, a bolt of lightning be great I'd think, but I'll settle for you firing up the corridor eh?"

"I," Her response was cut off as Selwyn cast something down the corridor forcing everyone to hastily move for cover. It was just a precaution, Max had caught some curse in the side from one of the upper year snakes and was busy vomiting all over a suit of armor and couldn't stand at all. It was probably just a disorientation spell, but no body was eager to take chances. It wasn't like the snakes were in a different boat as several upper years amongst the lion had their own spells. She flicked her wand, and the gout of fire snarled roaring into existence and lashed down the hallway. She really hoped no one got hit.

Boyle threw himself to the ground. He wasn't the only one, that damned smoke of Weasley meant anyone on opposite sides of the hall had no chance of seeing someone on the other side. There was still a small smell of burned hair but the spell had went high for the most part. One of his year mates looked at him, and asked whether it was... "No, to innacurate, you saw the station," He said remembering the fight with the Death Eaters at the platform. He was never more grateful for that fact either. Wherever Potter was he hoped he stayed there for a long time, a very long time. He flicked his own wand, and uttered the flame freezing charm. He'd used it a couple of times, especially when people had gotten it into their heads to start throwing the fire creation charm at each other.

A couple meters to his right and down the hall a bit, Selwyn cursed. "Potter and his fire spells," He growled angrily flicking his wand. There was a glow of sea green on his wand and he splashed a Gryffindor that they could see with some kind of gellatinous subject. The first year tumbled slipping and sliding on the stuff before it became sticky and adhesive holding him down on the floor.

Redmond nodded, that looked like a useful spell to know, especially in these situations. He didn't bother reiterating he didn't think Potter was around. This whole idea had been stupid, getting pranked was one thing but going marching off to ambush Gryffindors was the most retarded move his house had made this entire year.

Some of the Gryffindors were having much the same thoughts a little down the hallway. Both sides had walked into this thinking it was their house that was coming in with the advantage of surprise, and both thought they were attacking preemptively to put a stop to the other's planning for another attack. George groaned, it was no joke, as it was the anti flame protections Snape had had the Slytherins take was reducing everyones fire spells.

"We've got to do something," Their 'fearless leader' proclaimed. It had been Richard's plan to come in and charge the Slytherin's down. He'd gathered up everyone he could after having overheard Kettleburn, and another professor talking in a concerned manner about how there was a gathering of Slytherins on this floor. He thought that by knocking the snakes down they could settle this. That didn't look like it had played out as planned.

Lee nodded to George, who looked back at Fred, "Who all can do a summoning spell?" He asked if they were going to do something they needed to get everyone else free of this convulted mess. "If we can summon the people who-" A red bolt, a stunner, smashed into a suit of armor forcing Lee to move a big further out of the way, "are out of it we can sort this out."

Elsewhere Quirrel took the time to check on his handiwork. The scrying spell was of limitted usefulness beyond certain ranges. To really hope to get any use out of it you had to mark your target, or preferably the area. If you didn't you had to expend time and vast amounts of energy to monitor far away areas. He didn't have those kind of problems though.

It had been easy to convince a few of the already angry upper year Slytherins to mass at the corridor to plan. A simple illusion spell here, a minor compulsion there, and a little emotional magic helped immensely, but it had been letting them over hear, 'accidentally', that there was a shortcut that lead the Gryffindor tower, and that there may have been plans for fruther attacks that had sealed the matter.

The Gryffindor's had been nearly as easy to convince. The same illusion spell with a few tweaks on the professors talking had given the angry upper years all they needed to go running off. Now there was a fight well away from him. He knew that Dumbledore had to have other defenses. His own troll defense would be the easiest to get by for him, but the other defenses would be where he needed to prod and exaimine the others.

He knew that a lot of the defenses would probably reflect the defenses. No doubt Snape's had something to do with with potions. At first he thought that Snape was increasingly worried about the fire threat a little too much, but then it clicked. Fire made sense as a defense after all. It was an elemental force, and Dumbledore had to be linking the defenses together into a larger defensive complex of spellwork. That was what he was researching now.

-scene break-

The Gryffindors were all settled around the fire in the common room. Quirrel had ended up stumbling onto the fight, and everyone had been grateful for that considering he'd swept the whole thing under the rug. The defense professor had even patched everyone up in a surprising display of ability. McGonnagal didn't even know about the fight and that was exactly how everyone wanted it to stay. Right now though everyone was still plotting their next move.

Harry sipped at the freshly brewed coffee, and exhaled blowing the steam away. "Thats why you go through that so fast, you're always drinking it," Hermione commented, complaining as she looked at the steaming beverage.

It really wassn't something that Harry wanted to hear. He snorted ignoring her, most of the house were still around the house's tower. There were a minority who were off studying in the library, working on homework, and such, while a smaller group were distributed elsewhere around the school.

There had already been some complaints about leaving the common room without at least one other member of the house arround, and Fred and George had disappeared earlier with the rest of the quidditch team for practice. As it was there was no telling how long Wood would keep them out on the Quidditch pitch. It kind of put him in a bind, but he was definitely leaving the common room one way or another.

"We know Snape's got to be behind it," Ron was saying to a couple of the other first year boys loudly enough that Neville visibly edged away from him and further down the sofa. "He knew there was going to be a fight, and made sure those dirty snakes were ready for it." Dean Thomas, and a few of the others noddedd.

Here it came yet again one more round of its all Snape's fault. It was like Ron never got tired of blaming things on the abrassive potions master, still Snape had made sure the Slytherins were taking precautions. All the same it definitely meant Harry was leaving now before this discussion got any louder.

As far as breaks went the hallways were rather earily empty. Most people had done like his own house, and were holed up in their common rooms, or in the library studying. He'd considered heading to the library but there was a less than accademic urge boiling within him at the moment, which desperately clawed at him. The library was no place for that. So he headed elsewhere, and it certainly wasn't Hagrid's. The giant still had that infernal dragon egg on the fire, and there was no telling when that infernal thing would hatch into a fire spewing lizard of doom.

The problem was getting around the castle without being noticed. The few ways he knew were really common ways of getting around so it ran the risk of the very real chance of running into one of the other houses, or other Gryffindors. Everybody was avoiding the upper floors, he'd considered the option, but then gone back again and decided against it.

-scene break-

Harry flipped the page, at least they were nearly done with this. All they really had to do was wait for the potion to cool so they could move it the containers. Snape had nearly had a coniption fit when Thomas had tried to rush this part of the brewing. Not that it had been just that, throughout the class the tension had been thick enough to cut with a knife. It was serious relief that this class was nearly over.  
"Is it the right color?"

"Its close enough," Harry responded, close enough that he didn't care at least.

Across the room their sallow faced teacher was billowing about loudly reminding everyone that as soon as their potions had sufficently cooled they were to collect their sample and put it into the rack labelled, and then they were to get out. Snape also took the time to remind them they were to make sure to leave only after making sure that their potion was safely cooled. Rumor was the Hufflepuffs hadn't done that, and Snape had yelled and docked a bunch of points from them. For the moment at least they'd dodged that bullet at least, which was certainly a good thing.

It took another few minutes for their own brew to simmer, enough time for a couple of the working pairs to go ahead and leave as it happened. Harry tossed his book in his bag, and let Daphne go ahead and take their vial of the potion up to the rack. Snape had wanted everyone out of the dungeons as soon as they were done so Harry and Daphne had waited just down the hall for Tracy and a few others to finish up to avoid the already annoyed potions master. The rest of the class shouldn't, and weren't far behind them.

Naturally all this had been to good to last. They'd been waiting for a few minutes, and then the other students had started filing out that the arguing had started. They could hear down the hall. It'd turned out that Draco had found out about the dragon. It was a kind of annoying irony that it had played out like this. In this of course Draco had to go running his mouth to Ron as well, and it'd started a fight... twenty, or less, meters from Snape.

That was where they were now... Weasley hunched over Malfoy, and Malfoy screaming about Hagrid having a dragon. Snape was pissed, and the Gryffindors were still poised to jump down the other class of first years throat. This was not how they wanted the first day of classes back to play out. It really was too much to hope for that Quirrel would show up and smooth all this out again, but that was the best possible outcome.

Harry looked at the teacher and loosened his hand the distortion of clear liquid fading into the air as he did, and hoped that Snape didn't notice the nearly meter long scouring along the wall from the acid bolt that had been a 'warning shot'. Daphne nodded beside him, and then it went back down hill.

"Professor," Malfoy cried loudly, "That great oaf has a dragon in his hovel."  
Ron had clearly had enough, and punched downward hitting Draco squarely in the nose. "Shut up you inbred dark wanker-"Once, and then twice, he was drawing back for his third when Snape flicked his wand and a red bolt of energy surged outward and splashed across Weasley's torso. The red head dropped like a stone.

"That will be enough," Snape said silkily, "I will not have any more of this nonsensical behavior in my dungeons, and Draco I will not have you spreading outlandish rumors around the school like this it is unbecoming of house Slytherin." It would have made Ron's day to be sure to have heard that except he was out cold. "We will put an end to this now."

It was at that moment that Quirrel happened upon the scene, to much annoyance from Snape, "Uh is there perhaps," The defense professor began shakily looking around. His murmuring, and tremebling a bit more pronounced than they had been in recent weeks, "that I could to help here does young," he stammered, "Need to be revived, I can," He produced his wand, "handle that." The stammering didn't make sense it was far more pronounced than it had been these past two months had been.

"I do believe I have everything under control here," Snape snapped irritably, "That will be all Quirinus." That was one of the few times they'd even heard Quirrel's first name, and indicated really just how annoyed Snape was. The potions master rounded on the students, "I would ask what happened, but I don't see the point in wasting time with concotted renditions. Two points each for not having the forethought to break this up before it got out of hand, now get out of here." Some of those closer moved to leave as well, but Snape held up a hand, "No you lot will be staying detention spend scrubbing cauldrons will fix this I think, or at least make you think." As most began to go their seperate ways they noted Quirrel looked as if he was going to stand up to Snape, that would be great. No one noticed the way Quirrel's fingers were tightening around his wand's shaft.

-scene break-

The fighting had gotten the first years in a bit of trouble. Not of whole lot, but the upper years were convinced that every point counted now. It seemed that the race being this close was driving everyone into a frenzy. On the plus side Hagrid had dodged the bullet about the dragon, but now there was apparently something evil in the forrest eating unicorns.

Not that Harry cared, he didn't actually come out and say it, but it was a freaking magic horse. That was to say as far as things went not all that interesting. "You should consider it, I mean maybe just the Gryffindors." There was a snort from Daphne.

"No," He had enough problems as it was, and the last thing he wanted was to hear Dumbledore go on another speech about how 'being a teacher means taking the inititiave to make sure your pupils are responsible in how they use what they have learned'. One of middle years from his own house had asked after the fight that Quirrel had broken up, and Sid hadn't been the last. He didn't need anymore last minute visits to Dumbledore. "and I've already said that." More than once. That was the problem though wasn't it.

Fred growled throwing his arms up as his pet project went up into flames, metaphorically speaking at least "Damn," He grunted it had almost been stable that time, he and his twin had kicked their tinkering with charms into high gear, "Look, I'm getting no where with this, and I can't see Snape or anyone short of Dumbledore or the like getting through whatever defenses are around that alchemist thing, so I say we say sod it." He was getting fed up with all the chatter about Flammel going around the common room, they all were. It was part of the reason that they were out here instead of tucked away in the tower.

"Fred's right," George grunted flicking his wand to clean away the mess, "Ron's obsession might have a point, but whats Snape going to be able to do." He glanced at Daphne who was rolling her eyes, "He's a death eater, and besides maybe its just greed, maybe he's scared but the thing is he's doing something dodgy."

No one could fathom that maybe it wasn't Snape, because the master of potions was doing his own poking and prodding. Everyone could see he was up to something, and the teachers didn't think anything of it. However everyone seemed to have Quirrel firmly in their blindspot, especially the students. Quirrel who was the one teacher that all four houses could agree with each other on. It was making everyone blind to him.

His brother nodded, "Yeah, what would be able to do, anyway," Ron, and Richard thought and they were talking like they were going to end up doing something to somehow save the school from whatever it was Snape was trying to steal. "Lets just sit back, and make sure we've got everything nailed down if the snakes do try and rush us."

"Yeah because thats going to happen," Daphne declared as she rolled her eyes again. Snape was already two steps from locking the entire house in the dungeons, and he'd given Selwyn, and Marks three weekeends worth of detention just the other day. "We're as locked down as you,"

Fred snorted, "Yeah sure you are, you've got Snape at least," and he'd never thought he'd say that but that was the sentiment that had been building since new years, "we're stuck with McGonnagal and she wont back us for shit."

"I say we need to start playing defensively, knick us a bludger, put it in the hall." George grunted, "I think thats definitely the best way to keep the snakes from slithering up on us." He remarked, "And there are more than few spare bludgers."

There was a minute of pause as if Fred was thinking, "Didn't you say Malfoy had a set of Quiditch balls?" He asked, Malfoy had apparently gotten a set of balls sent from home, and had spent a lot of evenings now, well when he didn't have to do detention with Snape. "We could definitely charm his to screw him up that'd be fun?"

Harry flicked his hand and there was a surge of warmth and rippling heat. The bolt of fire ripped a quarter of a metter oblong trench into the dirt. He'd been poking through a book on wizarding history in the north. "We're not, though." Last week had been a debacle, and then the scrap with Malfoy in the dungeons.

"Professor Snape has Malfoy drilling spells nightly," Daphne interjected, seeing the looks of surprise, she went on to explain, "Malfoy and Nott went at it in the common room,

He'd tried asking around, but really no body could really say. Historically a lot of England's magical heritage was a hodgebodge of sources Romans, French, and 'Germanic tribes' amongst a handful of peoples like the Danes and such alledgedly, but the books he'd paged through so far hadn't been at all helpful.

-scene break-


	19. Chapter 19 Heedless I

-scene break-

There was blood on the stones outside in front the school's great hall, lots of blood. It was all dried now of course. It had been dry when the first students had screamed when they had seen it. Still it was there and all attempts to make it go away were failing. Even after all the effort the blood didn't even look faded.

On the plus side it wasn't human blood. Hagrid had said that it was unicorn blood during the initial examination. Of course it had taken Hagrid some time to get up to the school, someone had actually been sent to go get him. While the students in front of the mess had been waiting they'd been treated to the divination teacher ranting about impending doom... or something.

Harry hadn't been there, and everything he'd heard was entirely second hand. Hagrid had been all about what a terrible tragedy this was when he'd been over for tea later. Harry had only been out there because finally the dragon had been moved elsewhere in the castle. His only problem now had been he didn't know where in the castle the dragon was. Then Hagrid had decided it was a good idea to introduce him to that monstrous three headed dog... that had been less than pleasant. Then there was the fact Hagrid had named the dog Fluffy of all things.

Harry was today just getting back from a run around the lake. Once upon a time he'd tried playing football, his particapation in the sport had not lasted long. Too soon had Dudley moved in on Harry's particapation, and then not long later Harry had unlocked magic's power. After that Harry hadn't had much interest in kicking a ball around.

Katie took the precaution to walk around the blood even as she asked, "So Trelawny did say that Mars was bright, and well it is in promience. Isn't that what the Centaur said as well?"

"Yeah," Harry grunted walking across the dried blood, it'd been there for a couple of days now, and it was magic horse blood he didn't see the big deal. Hagrid said something about there being a curse on drinking unicorn's blood but other than that there wasn't a whole lot about it he could find. So that was that, at least until he found evidence to the contrary. Even if he was slightly concerned about Katie, and Su both avoiding the bloodstains.

The Great Hall itself was already fairly crowded, so really they were more than a little bit late. In fact from the looks getting shot around everyone was still on edge. It probably didn't help that that crazy lady was blathering on to anyone who would listen about the surely approaching doom. From the looks of thing Trelawny had probably been going nonstop since the very start, or maybe even earlier, of breakfast.

Beyond the divination professor's ranting though there were other issues. There was a shiftiness to the entire school, and it wasn't helped by the older students like Westerman. Though none of them did it in plain view of the great hall, what went on in the common room was a completely different story entirely. It seemed like what was going on in Gryffindor tower was the same through out the school.

Still the end of the year tests were right now nearly on top of them. Very, very soon they'd be taking them, and that weighing on pretty much everybody. So it was a bunch of stress on top of lots of stress, on top of everyone's individual pressures.

Suffice to say Draco was proving to not be enjoying his first year at Hogwarts nearly as much as he had expected. The letters from home were nice, though he was in many respects not looking forward to some of what waited ahead. He grimaced glowering as Daphne sat down at the table, it wasn't fair. Nott was enough trouble, but more than a few Slytherins had ... grr why couldn't Potter have just decided to go to Durmstrang instead of Hogwarts. On another note he didn't particularly mind Potter himself, but him being caused so many other problems. Finally Malfoy turned and glared at his other issue in Slytherin... Nott.

Nott though had more pressing issues, and was nearly about to pull out his own hair, when Selwyn finally gave him the answer to the question. His father's letter had been clear, make sure to study for the end of year tests. So here he was studying at the grand table where House Slytherin took their meals, and trying to eat while he did so hunched over a book.

Across the hall George and Fred were enjoying the company of their year mates. Quiditch was still going to be close this year, and some of the teachers had even talked of House Points as rewards for the highest scoring students this year. That was only one thing on their minds though, the fighting had gotten them another angry letter from their mother. However another had come quieter, this one from Arthur Weasley urging the twins to watch over Ron. So there was that too.

These and countless other issues distracted the students of Hogwarts, while the professors had their own worries. Snape's thoughts were on dragons, and trying to convince, an apparently fruitless endeavor, the headmaster that they should seize Quirrel.

Then there was a rumbling from outside, thunder perhaps. Abruptly though the doors to great hall shuddered and flared open. The rumbling was the sound of hooves upon stone. They were centaurs almost a dozen of them. Apparently the teachers weren't expecting this either as more than a few of them had stood up at the sudden intrusion into breakfast.

Snape starred dumbfounded at the sudden situation. Naturally McGonnagal couldn't be here, or even that great oaf Hagrid when these things happened. He swallowed as the tall creatures looked around seeming searching. Naturally they asked for Dumbledore, and the oaf, but it was the Potter at the end of the list that caused Snape to groan.

The oldest centaur's beard was long, and dark reaching the top of pects, and tied with some kind of decorations. He easily had to be nine feet at least. "Mars is very bright," The old man horse said as he trotted along to the table of the lion house, "and cursed blood from a creature of innocence stains our forrest." A creature of innocence had to be the unicorn, "and Saturn and Pluto have reached their apex, they are high in the night's sky."

"The children of dusk surely have warned you," Another, nearly as old, but this one had still a bit of gold to his whiskers, added trotting up, "A dark and terrible monster drinks the blood of the innocent, and such blood is cursed with a terrible price." The centaur warned, and then Harry caught sight of the nasty looking poultice on the centaur's leg, this one was hurt. "It dwells within your house of stone, in your school," And that caused the hall to be filled with gasps. "A wizard," He declared, "drinks unicorn's blood."

Harry starred and swallowed, and was saved from having to answer when Hagrid came bumbling into the Hall at a run as he tried to keep pace with a young Centaur. Hagrid was out of breath and heaving as he grasped his knees, "Sorry, just a minute, just a minute," He grunted as he breathed in and out, "Now, I was hoping that Dumbledore would be able to sort this out, but he's busy with the governor's today." Hagrid was trying to explain, but he couldn't seem to make up his mind to who exactly he was talking to as he rapidly turned from table to table. At this rate the half giant would probably make himself sick.

It was Katie who was tugging on his sleeve, muttering about how evil it was to drink unicorns blood, but then asked another question, who were the Children of the dusk. Harry frowned, and his answer was short; you wouldn't like them. He at least didn't think she would, and Harry's word was true.

Then a letter came down, tied to the leg of a bird. The bird was large and black, and eyed the centaurs for a minute before hopping straight over Harry's plate, and presenting him its leg. The letter bore the Black Crest, just another bit of news that Harry could have done without before the end of the year tests.

The centaurs' warning had lingered with everyone. It was all grim tidings, and it just compounded the whole issue with the mad bat of a divination teacher. The whole school was talking about it afterwords, and there was a lot to talk about. Each of the old centaurs had spoken in turn, until the last, the youngest, had gone and said his piece. His piece was the grimmest of all the news, warning of the direness of black magic, and how even fire would not be enough.

Telling Harry that fire would not fix a problem was not something he took well. Still the youngest's, of the collection of old centaurs, warnings had warned of time growing thin. Of how something grim and terrible might rise from the night unless it was destroyed.

After the centaurs visit it'd been an entire day until Dumbledore called him up to his office. It had been lunch time when McGonnagal had come to get him after his class ended. Dumbledore's warning had been given as a 'just in case', and had been short. Dumbledore had said that he hadn't wanted to keep him long so that he could go ahead and study for the rapidly approaching exams.

Dumbledor's warning though had its own dire concerns about it. Centaurs, he had said, rarely gave these kinds of notices. In fact it had been the horse men who had stained the stones with unicorn blood as a warning of the grim tidings. All of these warnings and Harry had begun to think that there had to be something brewing.

Of course the headmaster had had yet another reason, more than one, for calling for him. Harry's dodging of the sorting was unorthodox, and something rarely done. It had been done before, but when such happened it was clear beforehand. In Harry's case there were objections. For the school, the students, at least hadn't been bothered, but others... adults had been. Then though Dumbledore had rapidly changed subjects. The headmaster no longer had concern to worry over the sorting as he had been when Harry had first arrived.

The matter Dumbledore brought up so suddenly was the letter from Cassiopea Black. Dumbledore hadn't, surprisingly known the woman from school. His paternal great aunt had not taken the war against the dark lord before Voldemort well. All in all though the conversation seemed to be meaningless small talk.

When Harry had left the headmaster's office Snape had been waiting outside. The potions master gruffly stormed up the stairs to go see the headmaster for what Harry had no idea at all. In truth the rapidly approaching exams were weighing more on him than anything else. So his first stop after leaving the headmaster's office had been the library.

As far as practical examinations, charms would be the easiest he imagined, from a magical perspective at least, it and herbology were going to be, probably, fairly easy. It was transfiguration that potentially posed the problem. From a purely practical examination portion, it was the only flaw. She wanted them to do living to nonliving transfiguration, and that was more than a little difficult.

It wasn't likely the library was going to be able to do much for preparing him for the practical aspect of the finals, well excepting perhaps potions. The problem with studying was no body was quite sure exactly what that droning ghost was actually going to test on for History.

-scene break-

All of this was happening far too quickly... Dumbledor's vague warnings of being prepared just in case had just been one more thing, still the new week came. Exams were upon them quickly, too quickly given all the drama. Still charms had gone well, Flitwick had seemed to pay no mind to the heightened tensions between Lion and Raven houses. Unlike transfiguration was going to be Charms's practical segment had been easier than the book parts, of course transfiguration was its own problem.

Snape had chosen to divy up the matter of exams. The written exam was in one room in the dungeons, and the actual brewing portion part would be in another. All in all though the written portion had gone well. Half of it had pretty much been a rehash of herbology, ingredients and stuff and then the last bit had been a section on potions safety. Nobody, well save Slytherin, had been prepared for that, and that had probably been Snape's intention. Still it'd probably been a wise idea if hadn't caught most of them off guard.

"Divide up," Snape barked grimacing as he looked aroun, he wished Dumbledore would just listen to him, and give him the defense position. The little bastards always fought in his class, or as soon as they got out, or just as they were preparing to come in. Potions was the only core class at this school where injuries were as common, though as far as classes in general went care of magical creatures had its share. The sullen potions master turned his back to the class and started rifling through what was on his desk. Some of the students kind of looked at him funny, oh he already knew what they'd be brewing. Well at least the exam meant this farce was nearly over, if only for the year. He picked up his progress checklist

Harry dropped his bag after he'd pull Daphne into one of the back corners, particularly the side away from the cuboards where the ingredients were stored. Given how nervous most people were most the class didn't notice, and those who did didn't care as everyone else went dividing off into pairs. It took nearly ten minutes for everyone to get settled, and that in itself got Snape annoyed enough to start divvying people up.

"You have two hours forgetfullnes potion, grades will be determined by step and methodology," The potions master grunted, "Enough time has been assigned that in the event of making an early mistake there is enough to start over, begin." He flicked his wand and the timer started counting down in luminous numbers. Snape didn't seem to care about the possibility of cheating now that the practical exam had started, he wasn't even bothering to make them brew two potions per pair.

Daphne opened her ingredients, "After this and history we should be done," the First Years at least, the upper years still had a number exams of course that they hadn't done yet, but for them this was the last exam. Defense had been this morning for the Gryfindors, that had been a last minute reshuffling of exams apparently.

"..." He didn't say anything immediately and kept setting up, pulling out his pestle and mortar from his bag. History was going to be a bore, Binns was such a useless teacher. Snape had at least provided them with a starting point, Lethe Water, and Valerian sprigs. The rest though was on them to remember. "Right,"

The potion itself was fairly straightforward to start with at least, to start with, so Snape giving spare time wasn't really all that grand. He made his rounds quickly the first few minutes, and then settled back as the potion sat under the heat. The notice me not charms Quirrel had put on the handful of charmed moss, that he'd slipped on a few of the Gryffindors, earlier in the day helped keep them from being noticed. Quirrel knew he was running out of time hence the rather drastic step.

Harry leaned back waiting for Daphne to finish measuring out the Standard Ingredients. It was basically an innovation in potions making that had been introduced in the 1830s. Standard Ingredient, was the brand name and the monopoly holding product, was a marketted collection of potions ingredients most notably a mixture of herbs that could be churned out en masse and sold. It was one of those things that Snape appreciated because it kept the dunderheads from screwing up more often than not... on the other hand he didn't like it because it prevented further appreciation of the delicate nature potions too.

Of course Snape was only looking up every now and again, so he didn't catch the moss jumping into a few of the cauldrons. Over a half hour into class is when Quirrel's plan started going into effect. Snape had gotten lax in expecting that nobody would blow up a cauldron on the end of year test, even the Twins would try something like that so he should have been safe from pranks too for that matter. Slowly the moss settled on the inside side of the cauldron and soaked up the heat and the magic growing slowing along the side.

The first explosion went off in a massive wave of magic coating the side of the room, as the mossy substance in the cauldron entered an explosive growth stage, it hadn't helped the heat on the cauldron had been a little higher than it needed. The explosion triggered the others, but most the students only, only, got caught by some hot water. The moss was too busy trying to gobble up potions supplies.

Snape sat up from behind his desk, and then phase two of Quirrel's plan started. This had been the more difficult portion by far. Sneaking some charmed substance on students that was easy, planting something on suspicious Severus that was more tricky. Snape went down like a dropped bag of rocks and went tumbling over his chair, and that when the screaming started.

-scene break-

After the debacle that had been the potions pratical history had been a bore. Snape was still limping around the school. Madame Pomfrey had alledgely threatened to sedate him if he didn't take it easy, but so far he was, or at least at breakfast, had still be lurking about. Still at least exams were done and for the most part people had calmed down.

The rumor was that poor cleaning of cauldrons had lead to the build up of a magical fungi or something that fed on magical ingredients. It was apparently not soemthing that was a problem, it was just bad luck alledgely. After the excitement of potions though getting through the rest had been easy enough.

Still the centaurs' warnings rested over everyones' heads. Mars was bright, and didn't look like it would be dimming anytime soon. To make matters worse it was sweltering hot outside. Every body though had pretty much taken the opportunity to get out of the castle. All four houses.

They had a whole week to be nervous and anxious over exam results. So naturally more than a few people thought to stir the pot as it were. It wasn't even the teachers' fault seeing as they seemed short handed, not that everyone knew the full extent of that until later.

Harry settled back with one of his paperbacks, he was behind on his rereading. If he hadn't been he'd have been more interested in how Fred and George, and their friend Lee were messing with the giant squid in the lake, which seemed to be sunning itself. Everyone else seemed to be spread off into little groups around the shores of the black lake.

The mess started when Max, an older Gryffindor, and Birmingham, an upper year from Slytherin, started some kind of argument. One thing lead to another, and then suddenly Birmingham went backwards. It'd probably been a banishing spell, most likely at least, but when it had happened Harry had one, been too far away to see it, and two, not paying attention in the first place. Maybe it'd been pay back for earlier in the year, or something, but it was still the spark to the kindling. That was how things got out of hand.

One thing lead to another, and the next thing Harry knew his book was water logged, and he had an iron wall between him and a mess that was comprised of fighting students and flying spells. "What are they thinking?" Tracy muttered, "when the professors-"  
"Who aren't here," He grunted interupting here, by this point almost every who could cast was spouting spells. It was insane... speaking of insane there was Westerman being an idiot again. The real problem was the older students of course. Once you hit a certain age wizard born, or muggle you figured out you had to pick up other spells. Most fifth or six years started this, purebloods tended to start earlier regardless of what side of the political divide though.

This 'tradition' was reasonably modern for Hogwarts by wizard standards. It had really only caught on during the years Grindelwald and his forces had plagued Europe. It would likely have died off then if not for the rise of Voldemort. Voldemort's fall however had not meant the end of the Death Eater threat so the learning continued.

This year though had introduced a new problem. For years after Grindelwald, well at least once he had become headmaster, Dumbledore had cracked down on the learning. This had been because of certain types of studies students had delved in during Grindelwald's period. He had opposed the studies of the dark arts during his time as a professor, but only after getting the top post did he have the ability to do something about it.

A boy whose last name was Miller, he was a Ravenclaw upper year, had been studying under Flitwick in preparation for his NEWTs next year. He was Flitwick's choice for Head Boy for the house of the Raven next year. He'd been busy watching this 'new type' of magic Potter had brought in, even written his NEWT Charms Preparation final's paper on speculation. He had his own interests but no amount of trying to emulate had given him the insight into the spells. Not that it mattered he had his own. Miller side stepped and hit one of the Slytherins in the chest with a banisher sending him tumbling to the side. Then he shouted for the other Ravenclaws to back up, one way or another this was going to get worse, especially with the Gryffindors charging forward.

In the mean time the Hufflepuffs were in trouble, as it was they were getting boxed in between the snakes and lions. Westermen lead like he imagined a hero did, embody the image that Gryfindor held wizards to be charging forward into danger, heedless.

The downside to all this was because most people were out here. Most the students at least, no one wanted to be cooped up in the school after exams. Westerman had made his choice and no amount of people in his way was going to stop him from charging down Marcus Flint. For the moment that was all he cared about.

A dozen meters away from Richard, stuck between a bunch of Hufflepuffs Redmond was cursing his luck as he tried to figure a way to get clear of this mess. It was all crazy, and moving back would only get him caught up in the group from his own house.

While all this happened and it turned into a general melee it was all of this was irrelevant this skimirishing was at an end. For another minute it continued, and then there was a snarling roar, and when it passed it left the stench of scorched ozone for all to smell. That was the end of it, and everyone tended to stare around at each other.

A few people kind of half turned when the deputy headmistress finally got there, "When Dumbledore gets back he will hear of this," McGonnagal was saying angrily not that anyone was really paying that much attention.

-scene break-

So Dumbledore was gone, and by this point the whole damn school knew it. Very few people in Gryffindor wanted to listen to Mcgonnagal either the whole year had just been a mess. Snape was no help to the Slytherins, the rumor was he was tucked in somewhere in the hospital wing sleeping under Pomfrey's care. No one had seen him though, and Snape was the potions master, and even the members of the lion house didn't doubt Snape's talent at his art.

It was nearly midnight when he trudged in, he'd barely gotten through the door when he got assaulted by a fussilade of questions, namely where had he been? From he could gather after a few minutes it seemed a picture of what had happened was forming. No one had gone to McGonnagal, at least no one in the group that had gone, and Percy had been tied up like a stuffed pig in his year's dorm. The first time someone had looked in they hadn't even seen him, he'd been hidden away beside the bed.

It was clear where the group that had left was going though. Through the trapdoor on the third floor corridor. Idiots the lot of them. "We should get Daphne, and Su." Katie had said after looking around and making sure the twins were present. Apparently they had been thought to have gone with the idiots, but they had gotten back earlier having been setting a prank.

"No way," Fred grunted, "Just us, if we're going after them it should just be us. The rest of you should all stay here. Besides how're they going to know how to get passed the damned dog?"

... well that was actually the easy part, "Fluffy knows Ron, and I both, and Ron went with them," He stated after a minute, George and Fred groaned. Maybe Fluffy would let them past maybe not, but he couldn't say for certain one way or another.

Harry let them argue as he took the time to securely lock his books into his trunk. By the time he had gotten back Hermione was already saying they should got get McGonnagal, and about everyone... except Neville, who seemed to be agreeing with her, didnt like that idea. So it was two first years arguing with the rest of the house. "We should stay here, and go get Professor,"

"Forget it," Lee Jordan declared, "When has she ever done anything for us, by the time she does something it'll be too late. We've got to go now."

He blinked, what was this we stuff they were talking about, but those thoughts were interupted by other issues being brought up. Gryffindor seemed to have some strange notion that they were going as some kind of group... and then Katie was still under the impression that they need to get Katie and Su.

There was a rapping on the window as a large owl irritably pecked the window. "Isn't that Daphne's owl,"  
"Yep think so," Harry commented, "Hey Fred open the window," The red head glanced at him, shrugged and popped the latch. It wasn't like they were getting anywhere in this discussion to begin with. The bird angrily hopped in, and Fred rolled his eyes... even the damn bird had an attitude. It went hopping over to the couch and offered the note to Harry. The handwritting was clearly rushed, a far cry from the usual nice if overly curvy script.

George would have made a grab for the letter after Harry passed it off but he didn't feel like getting scratched by a moody bird, "So whats it say."

"Uh," Katie glanced at Harry who was already walking towards the portrait.

Harry turned around, "Slytherin's upper years pulled the same move, and I'm going to go confirm my bet with Daphne that Ravenclaw are probably also going, send a note to Su tell her to meet us at the corridor." he was itching for a fight, and Dumbledore had to have something good below the trapdoor to fight, "and the rest of you stay here." It took ten whole minutes for him to get to the corridor, and that was running... not that he'd ever admit it to Su. "So?" Harry asked staring at the Slytherins who were stuck to the ceiling, he didn't even particularly care that it was a mish mash of spells it was still neat.

"We were waiting for you to get us past the dog,"

He shrugged, guess they were going to wait for Katie, and Su then, he told them, "Its not a big deal I'm sure they'll be in the room after fluff and we'll send them back, its the Ravenclaws who're going to be the problem..." Actually now that he thought about it it was probably entirely possible to go on ahead. Katie and Su could probably get past Fluffy... nah he'd wait... at least another ten minutes.

"Thats a harp," Katie commented as Harry got the dog to roll over, "Why is there a harp?"

Harry opened the door, "Who knows, I don't happen to care, now come on." His fingers glowed as a bolt of fire formed... hmm someone had clearly already set fire to the area down below... weird. Then again people kept trying to imitate his trick... which was mildly annoying him... when he actually cared and wasn't occupied with other stuff... like right now.

"Okay there are burned plants... vines, wait this is devil's snare."

It took a minute and then Harry had flicked and hand releasing the bolt of fire into a bunch of smaller darts of explosive fire, "Now its ash, hopefully there is more interesting stuff up ahead," By which he meant he really hoped that this wasn't going to be a cakewalk... this was like his first dungeon crawl... He'd tried explaining the scene from the Hobbit but that hadn't gone well.

Daphne was beginning to the think a hyper active jittery Harry was a very bad sign... then there was the apparent fact the coffee was kicking in. "Do we actually have any idea whats up ahead?" Nope not at all... other than maybe a dragon, which was not in any way reassuring. Especially with the way Harry had just blown the door off its hinges.

"Come on," Katie urged we've got to keep going find the others.

The Slytherin looked at her, "Speak for yourself the rest of the lions are your problem." She commented, silently envying Tracy's choice to stay in bed. The next room got much the same treatment...only Harry had to hit it twice, the first fire blast had slagged the iron fixtures on the door, but it was still standing and stuck. The second magical attack sent it clear through... along with a bunch of stone, and plaster.

-scene break-

Helltanz's notes Apologies I'm stopping here next chapter will handle Quirrel, the dragon, the troll, and the conclusion of the year. Remember to send me PMs, or reviews if you have any questions. My original intention for this to be a 6.5k word chapter was suspended due to real life issues cropping up, nonetheless I hope you enjoyed it.


	20. Chapter 20 End of an Era I

-scene break-

Harry's temper had flared, Fred had said, and the common room had agreed that... that Ron for all his loud mouthed ill mannered attitudes was a very... very good chess player. It was kind of annoying actually. It still got them past the chess trap, which was the actually important thing he supposed.

Despite all logic after they'd gotten past the magic chess set they stopped and started standing around talking. The harp had been already there when they got here, they had figured Snape had left it... Snape didn't really seem like a harp person.

"You should all go back," Katie was urging them, more kindly than Harry had any intention of doing, she was asking. He... just as soon as he finished examining the enchanted chess pieces was going to be telling them to go away. Katie was at least making hte argument to take the unconcious people with them.

This was charms work... he was relatively sure, hmm maybe professor Flitwick played chess. In which case the Ravenclaw's were probably already ahead of them. He was still assuming that there had to be Ravenclaw students ahead surely they couldn't be that late. They needed to keep going on, press forward. "We're going on ahead. All of you should go back to the common room,"

"Bollocks that we're not leaving you to go on ahead with that snake!" Dean Thomas shouted pointing a finger at Daphne, voicing the opinions of some of the other Lions. Most of the older years had had the good sense not to bring it up.

Harry's hand flashed outward, and there was a rippling of air, "I do not want or need your help, you got this far, but face facts we-" There was a rumbling abruptly as the door slammed cracking another strike came down on it as the Gryfindor's turned. Trolls... three of them as big if not bigger than the one from Halloween. This was bad.

"Harry," Katie whispered.

One, one wouldn't have been that big of a problem... three though at one time that... that was a bit more troublesome. Getting around them was going to be the key. Harry took a step back, this had to be part of the defenses it was so clever it had to be planned. Already Richard was shouting for everyone to back up, and concentrate on one. It was a sound idea, "You three take the one on the side,"

"But-"  
He flicked his hand, "Just slow it down," Dozens of high focused bluish white fire arrowheads formed in front of him, eyes he thought just aim for the eyes. The bolts hissed outward from his hand. Almost as quickly Harry cursed angrily.

Fred, or George had apparently taught Ron that magic smoke spell. It was thick and black, and spreading out without any real change in apparent thickness. It also caused more than a few people to start choking and coughing, not something one wanted when dealing with three giant monstrous trolls. On the positive side at least the trolls couldn't see either, which was a good everything was concerned.

The trolls seemed to be roaring and grunting... which was probably some kind of primitive communication between them. Most of what he heard was troll, the language, involved pointing and some kind of grunting. Richard hoped the gesturing was a key part in the language because he was pretty sure he'd just bumped against the back of the chess board.

There were a couple of blasts of fire coming in from his right, most of them going clearly astray, though maybe were some were hitting giving the angry roars. Whatever the case Harry had learned his lesson not to get close, he could try phasing, but he really didn't want to risk the timing on it stationary objects were one thing. Still there were a few other options, the wall of rotating blades... though that probably wasn't the best idea especially with Weasley's damned smokescreen. Lightning was useful for disorientation, but he didn't have any idea how much he needed to stop their hearts.

There was a crash. The sound of stone shattering. Not that he could see it, but surely it had been one of the troll's blindly smashing at one of the charmed chess pieces. It was good sign when the chess pieces didn't immediately begin attacking everything in sight, hopefully they wouldn't start either that would be bad. The problem was Harry wasn't quite sure how easy it would be to dispell the smoke, given it was one thick, and two magical in origin.

The trio of girls attacking the troll on the right weren't having much luck. As it was the magical smoke wasn't helping to hit anyway. The smoke had been fast to spread out in the room, and there were three of the things as if one wasn't enough.

The other Gryffindors were having even worse luck. The oldest of the lot had a wider option of spells to draw form, and options that were more likely to be useful, but even so even a single fully grown mountain troll was considered a considerable threat to even an adult wizard. One the trolls gave a deafening roar as something apparently hit. There was no real telling with the way the smoke was obscuring their line of sight. Still atleast the smoke was doing something.

Harry grimaced, still at least it was a stone floor it made raising it easier. Still the trolls could clearly smash the stone into pieces so it risked the danger of shrapnel. He really wished that damned smoke would go away it was irritating his eyes. He choked a bit as he inhaled another breath, still the troll in front of him couldn't escape, he'd tagged it a good dozen times with enough bolts of acid to wear it down considerably. Thick skin didn't mean much when you had acid burning through it and into fatty, and muscle tissue alike. The only downside was he'd need to actually need physical contact to force atrophy the troll's muscles and Harry wasn't going to risk that. He swiped his hand again carefully clustering the bolts at a height where only the troll would be hit. It was good thing these ugly bastards were twelve feet tall, he could aim high even in the poor visibility.

There was another roar, and then Harry realized he could feel it. The sense of raw magic while he was here at Hogwarts was all encompassing so he hadn't noticed it at fire. The whole building, the stone, the air, and the wood along with everything else was saturated but this was something else entirely. His wrists burned as his fingers shook, this creature was going to die its cursed black aura would be snuffed out, crushed, burned. Stones rippled snarling pushing up reaching towards the ceiling. This dark miasma in the troll it was familiar, kill it.

Su did not assume she knew what was going on, one minute there had been steady barrage, volley after volley of dense blasts and now this. Maybe Harry was just impatient, or it was possible that something about the scarred troll he was facing had set him off... she couldn't say for sure. Now though... whatever the cause the ground stones were rippling up, and she wasn't sure if Harry was altering the castle or if he was really burning the magic to make new stone.

Daphne stumbled back cursing,. Her fire bolt flew straight up, in the direction her wand had been pointing. Katie grabbed her, and pulled her back, and the Slythering first year looked at her, "We've got to do something." She had really been expecting that they were just holding the second troll off until Harry could finish the first one.

There was a solid contact, Harry could feel it as the stone slammed into the troll's side. He'd missed the second one, sending into the wall, not that it mattered. The troll snarled slamming at the rock, but it was where Harry wanted it. Orange red fire glowed, heating as the air shifted hot and popping as he focused his magic into it. A part of him knew he shouldn't have bothered with spending the extra magic, this multipart spell, but the troll from halloween had been such a pain... and this thing needed to die. Molten earth contained in the fiery mass... lava. He could already feel it draining the magic to keep the earth superheated, but there. There was a rippling snap as the fire burned, and then a howl, but from the wrong troll.

Trolls weren't supposed to use magic. That wasn't possible... the dead troll dropped ripped nearly in twine from the nearly meter long shard of black glassy stone.

The fragment of Voldemort's soul cursed angrily, the language thoroughly butchered by his current host's injuries. He'd assumed that the other fragment had been exagerating, but that clearly wasn't the case... and here he was without a wand. Angrily the dark wizard's soul fragment pumped even more tainted black energy and hate into his host body. His host took a step forward, and swung downward. The club howled with fire exploding outward.

Harry considered dodging, but he already had the stone up, and it really was easier to just stay put behind the very rough stone and pour his magic into the shield. Still that was one troll down, and two to go. One normal, he hoped, and one evil troll?... whatever. He heaved a breath, before coughing on the still present smoke.

The shard of Voldemort's sould considered its options. He'd assumed the other piece had concealing things, and in perhaps someplaces exagerating but the philosopher's stone was just too good of a tool to pass up just because of some suspicions. So again he poured all his impotent rage, and fury into a wave of fire. Potter seemed to have taken the same trick and modified significantly, but simplicity at times was really the easiest measure in these fights.

Stones blacked, and grew hot under the heat of the fire. His host body roared might muscles flexing as brought the tree limb that served as a club down. The wood though was still cool to the touch massive and secure in its magic. The other Gryffindor's weren't an issue they'd be nothing, Po-

That was as far as the possessed troll got as it stepped forward another stone column came up slamming forward stopping the thoughts. Harry knew that he had to finish this quickly, otherwise things really would get out of hand. This needed to end.

The stones were the easiest to hit the troll with considering they came directly out of the floor. They took more energy but at least he was hitting. Now if only he could get rid of that massive club, and all that fire. Luckily there wasn't anything to burn... well not much.

For the other Gryffindors, and Su and Daphne they had no idea of what happened, most were still struggling with the last troll. Abruptly though there was a stench, a horrid smell, and the roar of fire all around.

Stone was solid, earth was the element of unyielding willpower. The mountain would not bend to any amount of howling wind. Stone came up from the earth, in three and four feet tall segments aimed at the trolls thighs, and hips. Growing stone was not easy, but it was worth it once the thing was trapped.

The troll heaved its chest struggling. The soul fragment knew what was coming, he didn't have the room, or the ability to charge not with all the rocks around him like this. Trolls were not particularly dextrous. The fire came, but there was a taint to it, something different than the first waves of attack that been sent. Voldemort cursed his host's body

Taking the last remaining troll down had been a mess. Still Richard thought they had everything well in hand now, as he stood on top of the unconcious thing's chest. Blood was leaking from its nose, eyes, ears, and a nasty wound on its head. "Ron go ahead drop that smoke," He barked, waving his hand in fruitless gesture. Ron had the good sense to at least look sheepish.

There was another roar of defiance from the last troll, Harry surely had to be taking his time. Then there was another blast of fire, from the Troll, and no doubt Harry's response, and Katie wondered what was going on.

The way the fight ended was more or less unsatisfactory. Harry's 'tainted fire' might have retarded healing, magical healing especially, but acid worked well too apparently. Still by the time they finally got the smoke cleared Harry was busy trying to burn something beside the dessicated troll's corpse, doing well enough job too given the piece of metal was almost completely liquified. What lay ahead of them none could say, but Harry wasted no time in in pulling one of his gloves off and touching the last troll.

All the Gryffindors though were less sure of their reasoning for coming. So it was easier to convince them to go back. Harry leaned back catching his breath. The last troll was still alive, if only barely. It was no longer his problem, though he really wished Su would stop asking questions about earth manipulation while he was trying to catch his breath. While certainly more expansive than his previous uses it was not his first demonstration of the technique. "Stone is unbending will, but also unrelenting fury," Harry liked to wax poetic at times. "Fine come on," He stated moving on and away from the three trolls. At least it was just them, and what stood as the next challenge was nothing.

A wall of fire? Dumbledore's challenge perhaps, but only because he didn't think Snape liked riddles. Harry didn't bother, the fires, two purple and black, died snuffed out with little wait. Daphne and Su went on ahead as Harry poked at the paper.  
"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking the bottles," He said, well most of them except the one the two flame protection potions which Daphne had identified. The wine and the poison though, his...

She raised an eyebrow, "Where are you going to put them." He paused... ah that was going to be a problem. So naturally he wrapped them up in robes, and foisted them off on Katie.

"Lets go," What was through the corridor was not what he was expecting.

Su, and Daphne were out cold. Quirrel standing around looking at himself in a mirror, and there were absolutely no other Ravenclaws in sight. Harry groaned and rifled around in his jacket for a couple of gold coins... stupid bet.

Quirrel turned, "oh," He barely raised his wand before a fire bolt struck the mirror.

"Well at least I made a little bit up on betting it wasn't Snape," Harry grunted altering his bare hand to focusing on Quirrel.

The defense professor steadied his hand. "I should imagine, that that ruckus was you dealing with the trolls," He flinched his eyes twitching rapidly, and there was a muffled sound. Quirrel's head hurt as the Dark Lord angrily growled and demanded things of him.

That same tainted feel flared. He hadn't noticed it before, presumably because it'd been inactive and well Quirrel's class was boring thus there really hadn't been a point to paying attention. Now though Quirrel had his full attention, while the defense teacher was clumsily unrolling his turban. There was another face on the back of Quirrel's head. That wasn't weird at all.

The second face licked his chapped lips, "This is what I've been reduced to, because of you Potter the greatest wizard in history and I'm stuck possessing this bumbling oaf." Quirrel shuddered, "I had expected my horcrux to be enough, but I suppose that been proven wrong."

"Whats a horcrux?" Katie asked. Harry shrugged, he didn't know.

Quirrel started to say something, but the seccond face cut him off, "Not now Quirrel," He snapped irritably, Voldemort had been waiting for this for ages. "You've been busy fighting the remaining Death Eaters, they're nothing they lack organization. I knew something was up then, the Troll at Halloween confirmed though what I thought. The prophecy was correct, I had made the right choice in attack tonight though proves it further had I waited to get the Philosopher's stone this would be-"

That was as far as he got dozens of energy kinetic, and fire pulses rained from both of Harry's hands. "About that, I don't see the rock," He commented the sneak attack hadn't been something Quirrel would have been able to block too much raw magic. Voldemort though his shield did a better job of stopping the fire... of course the wrist probably wasn't supposed to turn that way.

"Dumbledore's final defense it seems is trapping the stone in the mirror," Voldemort continued, a bit more warily this time. Quirrel's body wouldn't have nearly the durability of the troll the fragment of his soul had been possessing. h with the unicorn blood, amongst other things strengthening him... it came another wave of magic. Potter clearly didn't care about the mirror. Each bolt was a narrow tappered arrow head of bright orange fire. It was the smaller red white spheres that Voldemort realized to get away from when the first one exploded like a tiny sun for several seconds. His flame freezing charm the only thing that kept it from being dangerous. Yes Snape had been correct to emphasize anti fire spells, and protections.

Harry turned his hand getting closer with every step. The philosopher's stone? He'd expected something else, why put your secret for immortality here, it didn't make sense. Still whatever counter attack that Voldemort was preparing to unleash abruptly faltered as Katie added her own fire to the mix. In that sole instant of sudden shock, the gap in the possessed man's defenses were just wide enough. There was a sudden scream as thick so green, that they could be black vines lashed out. Harry hadn't found away to do this with anything other than plants. Voldemort screamed and writhed at the invasion of foreign magic, and if Harry was surprised by the unique reaction to his magic, and his blood it wasn't visible. Harry didn't care about the spark, or the crinkling and burning of the flesh.

-scene break-

Nobody... well the student body didn't know it was Quirrel. Quirrel had just been written off as yet another casualty of a Death Eater attack, which was definitely a propaganda victory to be sure. In other news Gryffindor had done well enough over all. The last Quidditch game of the year last had come and gone and the last bits of points were waiting to be tallied as soon as the last finals were graded... At least Quirrel had finished grading his paperwork. All things considered it looked like Ravenclaw would be winning the house cup this year.

Harry unfolded the letter he'd gotten two weeks ago... the letter from Cassiopea Black... Malfoy had apparently gotten a secondhand copy from his father recently. That had been a bit annoying... sure they were related, and there was that whole Christmas dinner thing, but still.

The last couple days had been well troublesome. It'd been boring. All their exams were done, the threat to stone was gone, but Mars in the night's sky was still bright. Whatever was to come, was still coming the centaurs warned. For now though that wasn't his problem.

Pomfrey had confined him for three days in the hospital wing, obstensibly for the rather severe case of magical exhaustion he had. That didn't bother him... they hadn't let him keep the bottles though that annoyed him the most. The other downside was any experimentation was sidelined until he was free from the harpy. So all that left for him was the letter to read over again. At least he would have plenty to do this summer... and there was so much to do.

Dumbledore's entry lacked any particular pomp or circumstance, nor was any particular spectactle given to the other heads of house. "I believed we would find you here mister Potter, I did not wish to unduly disturb the school year," but he'd managed to put this off until now. There was no getting around it now the governors were insisting... well some of them. It didn't matter that what he'd done was completely legitimate, or that there was prescedence for it. Oddly it was the Hufflepuff Alumni on the board that were being the most insistent. It was an odd situation, but Dumbledore wasn't concerned.

Snape on the other hand. Well he had his own reaons for being concerned. Potter was, had been looking through that letter. He for one didn't think it was good sign at all. Lucius had sent Draco a copy because he thought it was important, the Black family was an old pureblood line. Severus on the other hand would have preferred if his godson avoided Potter.

McGonnagal who was on the other side of Dumbledore had the Sorting hat, and she was followed closely by the charms master, who was carrying the stool which was half his height. This whole affair was a waste, it would have made sense to McGonnagal perhaps if it was still the beginning of the year, but now at the very end it was pointless.

Dumbledore took the time to go over some of the more colorful reasons why the sorting hat had been devised, and why it was the norm. He, the headmaster had considered his options about the whole situation with Voldemort and the Philosopher's stone. He'd considered bringing it up, but in the end the discussion hadn't happened. Harry didn't seem to care about the Philosopher's stone, or even Voldemort afterwards. Whatever defenses had burned Quirrel had worked in tandem with Harry's binding plants, which was odd because Harry hadn't minded he'd failed to take Quirrel prisoner either. McGonnagal had just wanted to launch a tirade, but he'd managed to sideline that at least for a time, she might still go ahead with it.

The sorting hat was old. There was a saturation of magic in it as old as the stones in the castle. The headmaster had said Godric Gryffindor had enchanted the hat to resolve sorting issue, even after the founders were gone. The four houses represented the ideals allegedly of the founders, students were sorted based on attitude. Enchanting a hat... it was something out of a book, still Harry supposed it served the purpose well enough.

"Well thank you for that, Mr. Potter." The hat grunted snarkily in his mind, "You're a bit late coming to me, of course once upon a time classes started with the spring." and no doubt in all the history of the school the start of classes had changed many times. "I've not sorted your friend either, curious a place here in Hogwarts halls would be his right. Still the question is where to put you with all your summer born fire. Your books speak well towards Ravenclaw, and all ambition to reign of Slytherin, yet an oath said, bound like iron speaks of Hufflepuff, and a lion's fury, with no fear at heart is Gryffindor born, and true." The hat whispered quiet in his mind.

The discussion went back and forth, and the teachers' waited in the silence. The hat agreed that Hufflepuff was less of a match, and Slytherin for all ambition was close still.

"Just to Gryffindor," Harry grunted, he didn't particularly care, and the hat seemed intent on dragging this out. He didn't see a point to it, earlier in the year it might have mattered, but he'd been here a whole year.

The hat hemmed and hawwed a bit, "This is why we sort people at the start, still you are used to it so thus to Gryffindor you go." That was that, for all the hat's comments on the other houses, and other things it was done.

Dumbledore nodded. That would certainly satisfy the board, or not, but at least there was nothing they could do now. McGonnagal took the sorting hat back, and extended a formal welcome into Gryffindor house. "Harry if I may I know you have that letter still, perhaps now with the school year ending is a better time to talk about it?"

-scene break-

The end of the year feast had been boring affair. Slytherin had been in a sullen mood. Ravenclaw had taken the House cup, mostly thanks to points from the finals. The difference between Gryffindor and Slytherin's final score a mere eleven points. That was the note on which the school year ended, well along with a moment of silence for Quirrel at the end of the year feast.

In the end Dumbledore had made the descision not to give Gryffindor the house cup in a last minute victory of points. McGonnagal had been greatly relieved all things considered. Without that bit of drama all that was left was the train ride home.

There wasn't any telling what lay ahead. Quirrel being killed... attributed to Death Eater activity had even gotten covered by the newspaper. Most people... rather most students didn't even get the Prophet or other papers reguarly, instead the main information was rumors.

Daphne sat down as they waited for the train to pull away from the station, and Katie took the spot beside her, seeing as Tracy had grabbed the other side, "This year was way more interesting than last year." She declared, people were a lot more relaxed now that results of the exams were out... well most people. School being over also helped. "So whats the plan for summer?" Finding out one of the most liked teachers in the school had been possessed by an evil wraith of a dark lord had been kind of an issue.

"There is a luncheon in about a week, and then beyond that..." Harry leaned back, well Cassiopea Black's gathering was really the only thing definitive. He needed to stock up on food, get a bunch of books on carpentry, and farming... and well he was behind on summoning too. The first year of Hogwarts had pretty much wrecked his schedule, then again finding out about the wizarding world in general had totally turned everything on its head both for good and bad. "and there are a bunch of other things as well.

Slowly the train started to pull away from the station. A year done, like Dumbledore had said, and there was still a lot on everyone's mind. Still the whole summer was laying ahead. Su apparently had some kind of family thing as well, seh'd probably be busy until the end of June, or early July even.

Tracy expected to get stuck in something similiar, but she, Daphne and Katie were still making plans for some kind of end of the school year commiserating in the form of a shopping trip. Harry was going to definitely skip that. "So the plant on fire thing?"

The other three perked up looking to Harry, "The vines aren't normally on fire. The fire, it was the addition of a kind of permanent defense enchantment that triggered." He did his best to make it sound like he knew what he was talking about, the lets set Quirrel on fire for touching me... well Harry didn't have clue where that bit had originated. He vaugelly understood how it worked, to the point of process but not so much why it had triggered.

"Automatic defense?" It was worth a small fortune for Harry's ego at least that that was the part they chose to latch on to. Daphne had spent the last year as Harry's potion's partner, so she'd seen the bag plenty.

Katie had too, so from a theoretical stand point it was easy to guess. Through out the lessons Harry had not been rather clear on manipulating magic worked, but still they had a picture. The idea of the bag went completely opposite to Harry's usual fire creation. "So its what constantly getting energy from you?"

"Thats how magic works, my bag draws off ambient energy," when it couldn't feed off his, "taking a small but constant flow to power. The shield is only solid when it needs to be, or in this case only sets things on fire when conditions are met." All of that he could confirm, so he held out a hand, "It responds to a triggering condition, but," His hand glowed red and orange fire curled against his finger tips, "this is impermanent fire it lasts only until its fuel is exhausted." It was why making rocks, and water took more out of him relatively speaking. "Making something permanent without a physical form not easy," So don't try it... geez had that blown up in face when he'd first gotten started.

Daphne glanced at the bag, "But the bag is physical,"  
"It is,"

She had seen the bag up close, but still went through with picking it up, there was nothing particularly obstentatious about it, no clear arcane marks. Harry did her a favor by pumping the bag with a 'contrast', magic, highlighting the 'shield'. "can we learn this next year?" For a little while there was some all around discussion over just what they should try and learn.

Harry sat back, and watched the countryside roll by as the train worked its way south, down the rails, and on the way to London. The warning from the centaurs still hung, last night Mars had been bright. War was still coming, but who cared about that. Harry had so many potential topics to look into, spells to craft, books to read, and if the Death Eaters wanted to fight well... It wasn't like they'd been all that impressive.

Far, far away from the steaming red scarlet engine working its way south there were people who would disagree with that. After the fall of Voldemort on that Halloween's night more than a decade ago the Death Eater's had fractured. Some of the inner circle had bribed their way free, some had gone to jail, and some had slipped away in the night. From the ashes of Voldemort's fall smaller bands of Death Eaters got together lead by different wizards.

An end of an era was here, and none of the free members of the Inner Circle doubted that in the years to come there would be changes... in the mean time Rosier had a little old lady to kill. Another young wizard was making his way across the north sea on a boat bound for Norway.

Dumbledore however, well the old headmaster was looking forward to the International Confederation of Wizards gathering in Paris this year. It was going to be positively splendid, all bright lights and cheer.

-scene break-


End file.
